Grimm's Tale
by Cloudyvisage
Summary: Before Atlas, before Beacon, a Grimm takes a single step into sentience and threatens it's own kind, relying on its pack and the careful interaction with humanity to survive. With the Great War looming over the horizon and change threatening the whole world the Alpha decides that with it's own species turned against it, the only path to Survival is with humanity.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own RWBY~

Chapter 1

It began with a unique perspective, the outside was cold.

A simple concept, cold, one which any species should understand, a bane to motion and antipathy to the fire within living beings.

Yet, even as the intimidating creature thought this something sparked within its strange mind, setting its impossible physiology onto a path every one of its brethren eventually treads.

It began to notice things, the difference in trees it ran around whilst patrolling, the brightness of the day and warmth of the sun which came with it.

Even as the world started to become more filled in its pack seemed to notice something was odd with their sibling, to the point of even the Alpha becoming wary and aggressive in its actions.

This came to a head on a day where the sun hid behind grey skies waiting to unleash their gift upon the waiting land. The pack was excited, prey had moved into its territory, a sibling had met their end at the intruder's hands but the death had not been in vain, the pack had heard, they knew.

The howling began as the pack chased, following the scent, the individual Grimm knew that the one it chased had killed one of its siblings and something new happened to it again, even as it was still coming to terms with it having a perception of the world, it felt a twinge in its chest, some strange form of heat from deep inside.

The heat burned it, it did not like the heat, but the heat drove it forward, for some reason a memory occurred to it, a Grimm, like any other, but this one was somehow different. Its sibling, its fellow pack member.

The heat burned hotter, painful beyond belief, or perhaps that was the strength in its legs flagging, it noticed it was far ahead of its pack now, moving so much faster than them.

Then it saw the intruder, a strange being, shaped like a deformed version of itself, yet so colorful, so vibrant, it was like the world whereas the Grimm was like the darkness of a cave.

For a mere moment they both stared at eachother, one in resignation and the other in curiosity then the intruder burst into motion, pulling out a strangely shaped claw and pointed it toward it.

The intruder pointed the claw at the Grimm and suddenly pain exploded in the Grimm's mask, something had cracked it and injured it and with the pain came the burning in its chest again, the Grimm began running at the intruder with a ferocity it had never had.

As the Grimm neared its target the intruder swiftly sidestepped the lunge and brought the claw down it felt its world go dim, crashing into a nearby tree it lay there watching as the rest of its pack came down on the intruder with righteous fury.

A scratchy cold effect began running down the length of its back, settling in its lower stomach, it wanted to go back to its pack, rip the intruder to pieces, anything for the pack, but it could not move, not the slightest motion came from it.

The intruder changed its claw from its blunt form to its sharp form constantly, leaping over others and inflicting lethal wounds on them one at a time, all the while its Alpha sat there observing, watching as its pack was torn to pieces in front of it.

The burning returned as it watched its leader prowl at the edges of the fight waiting, searching for the right moment to attack and it felt a cracking sound coming from its neck area, it could move its feet ever so slightly!

Finally the last one of its fellow pack members fell desperately trying to hold to this side of the Shadows before slipping away, the intruder stopped and looked toward the Alpha, snapping its blunt claw back to its sharp claw as it looked up at the powerful being.

With no warning the Alpha charged letting loose an earth shattering cry before lunging to take a bite out of the intruder. With almost no effort the intruder tapped its claw to the side of the muzzle of the Alpha and shoved them both away from each other, leaving the intruder standing only a few paces from where it started and the Alpha recovering from crashing into a tree.

The Alpha turned around just in time to glimpse the shine of the claw as it was jammed into one eye, then almost as swiftly, the other, causing the Alpha to yowl out in surprise and begin desperately slashing out in front of it blindly.

Leaping out of range the intruder changed his claw to its blunt form again and began throwing something from the claw so fast the observing Grimm could not even see the claw moving nor the objects being thrown, only that the Alpha was suddenly being hit by something like small rocks in its gored out eyes.

With a final scream the Alpha fell and the intruder relaxed slightly before looking around into the woods, seeing what the Grimm had heard quite a while earlier the intruder looked around the clearing until its eyes came across the unmoving but not returned to the shadows form of the observing Grimm.

The hair above the eye of the intruder raised slightly until it lifted up its blunted claw and point it at the Grimm. As it was about to throw the dangerous invisible stones multiple flying Grimm swooped in and began their attack.

Despite the attack the intruder was still able to fire on its injured target once before fleeing again, the shot struck with the force of a tree falling on it in one small area, its bone mask again, just below its eye, creating a bleeding teardrop shape in its mask before it fell unconscious.

The world returned slowly to the Grimm and the first thing it noticed was the shattered white shape in the sky, the view of it caused the chilling effect settling in its stomach that was slowly encroaching to lighten and the tension in its body disappear.

Immediately afterwards it noticed it could move again and therefore rose on shaky limbs but it found it didn't quite understand its own movements and fell on its side. The sudden collapse confused it further as it began trying to move and found that its limbs were not the ones it had before it fell unconscious.

Stronger, defter, larger, it was in every way superior, realization slowly dawned on it, for some reason, it was like its Alpha, it was not as large as its Alpha but it was still significantly superior to its former siblings.

The thought of its siblings brought back the uncomfortable burning in its chest but it decided that the intruder would have to wait until it recovered, then it would track the intruder down and rip it asunder. Perhaps even if the intruder was no longer in its territory even… no, the Grimm would never leave its territory without the guidance of its Alpha.

The view of the shattered sky rested in its eyes as the being lay down and quietly extinguished the blood red of its eyes from behind its damaged mask, rest well deserved, complications could wait until later.

The light rose over the trees and the new Alpha gradually awoke noticing the sound of breathing all around it, the sound startling it into leaping up on its strange new limbs.

All around the Alpha were pack members, they looked just like it used to as well as its siblings, though admittedly they did appear a little on the small side compared to what it recalled its siblings looked like.

Slowly the others woke up and surrounded him, sitting in a half circle around the Alpha and remaining unmoving as though waiting for something.

Gradually realization dawned upon the alpha that this was its pack, these were the members that would listen to it and it would control.

The thought confused it as another feeling swelled up upon seeing its pack, this one was a slightly warm feeling that suffused its body, even if its pack was only four members at the moment.

Stretching its body to full length the Alpha looked past its pack and remembered the intruder, with this it could hunt the intruder down as it is no longer stuck inside the territory of its former Alpha, indeed it needed to find its own territory, to travel and search. Time didn't matter, it would remember its pack, it would always remember.


	2. Chapter 2

I do not own RWBY~

Chapter 2

North was the direction it decided it was to go, the intruder had been heading that way when it last saw it and the lands to the north had always had fewer attackers against its old pack.

The first day held no conflict for the new pack and instead the Alpha found that despite the feeling of being in another's territory it met none whom would challenge its right to pass unmolested.

The dawn of the second day held another surprise though, when it woke up the Alpha noted that there was a fifth member to the pack, confused again but simply accepting it the Alpha set off again to the north.

The day was not nearly as clean as the previous as the Alpha ran into two non-pack Grimm which started a standoff between the patrol and the passing pack.

At first the Alpha was felt a constricting in its chest at the possibility of being forced into conflict with another Alpha whilst being so untested itself but it soon felt the more familiar heat come upon it and it decided to end the farce, it was an Alpha now, not to be harassed by valueless Grimm!

With its mind made up the Alpha leapt into action, spearing the first of its opponents immediately upon its razor sharp claws before whirling on the other, intent to slice it apart.

The other Grimm however had the moment to realize its unfortunate circumstance due to its partner's demise at the hands of the small Alpha and leapt upward to slash at the unguarded portion of its shoulder.

The pain was not as crippling as it remembered such a wound should have been and it reflexively shoulder checked the smaller Grimm to the side, ramming it into a tree.

At the crunch sound the Alpha looked at the broken Grimm and yet again realized its strength, enough to kill its opponents by simply knocking them to the side.

Crouching low and listening the Alpha attempted to discern if there were others part of the patrol and if its cover had been blown but after several minutes it heard only the wind and sound of the defeated Grimm returning to the Shadows.

As the Grimm returned to the shadows the Alpha felt itself draw in something from them as their physical forms slipped away, scarcely discernible yet still very distinct it left a strange feeling in the thoughts of the Alpha, curious it observed the almost completely gone bodies.

A fleck of darkness moved towards the Alpha and suddenly it felt filled, full, in its stomach area. Almost immediately it wanted this full feeling to stay, it was comfortable and let the comforting warmth in its chest come easier.

Moving away the Alpha looked to the sky and set off at a pace that its pack could just barely keep up with, yet again to the north, always the north.

Many Sunrises Later

The Alpha rose again and noticed its pack had yet again increased in size, the growth had slowed over the days but it was still a common thing to wake up and check the size of its pack, at the moment it was sitting at fourteen members and the Alpha could not be more pleased, while its pack was not as strong as its former Alpha had been it was now up to a number that could be relied upon in combat.

With these positive changes came a rather large negative, it was becoming more and more difficult to avoid detection when traveling through the territories of other packs.

Already it had been forced into combat with numerous patrols and had even been forced to kill several patrols at once when the initial patrol had sounded their warning cries before being silenced, the ensuing flight from the scene had left the Alpha with that chilling feeling in its spine at the prospect of being forced into a confrontation with another Alpha.

The pack had slept this last night in a cave that was at the border of two territories, hopefully lessening the possibility of detection by either faction even by a little.

Unfortunately the Alpha had remembered very little from its days as a simple pack member of its former Alpha and did not realize the borders of a territory are exactly the place where patrolling is highest.

The first warning the Alpha had something was wrong was when the presence in the back of its mind which seemed to connect it to its pack members lost track of a patroller.

Immediately getting that chilling effect on its spine the Alpha ran out of the cave and looked towards where it last felt it's subordinate.

The black and white image of two non-pack Grimm made that chilling effect worse until it saw another being raising over the curve of the rock, much larger than the small Grimm in front of it another Alpha made its presence known.

The effect immediately left its spine and traveled to its stomach, this was dangerous, yowling for its pack the Alpha looked at its new enemy, the other Alpha also howled to the sky before lunging to attack.

Seeing the attack coming the defending Alpha decided to do something it felt it had little choice in, an attack that would injure itself.

Sprinting forward the Alpha dodged as best it could under the grasping claws of its attacker and then leapt up and backwards, back into easy clawing range but also slamming its enemy farther than it intended to go, right into the middle of the pack of the defender.

Seeing their target flying at them the pack began spread all around the impact zone and leapt the moment the disoriented Alpha landed, cutting into it from every angle and holding it down.

Almost immediately the attacking alpha began thrashing to get out of the cage of claws and teeth it had been put in, ripping several of the smaller Grimm to pieces before stumbling somewhat upright just in time to stare into the damaged mask of the Alpha it assaulted mere moments previously right in front of it, claws a mere moment from its mask.

The claws tore into the vulnerable eye sockets of the attacking Alpha followed by the bulk of the rest of the body behind it landing on its target knocking it over back into the mob of claws and fangs.

Shredding the lower body of its target with its hind legs the Alpha jammed its other set of claws under the mask of the assaulter and almost immediately all motion came to a grinding halt before a with a massive spasm the body of the Alpha curled then flung all its limbs out skewering one last pack member before coming to a complete halt.

Pulling its claws free the Alpha felt the chilling effect disappear finally as the body of its enemy began to dissolve. The feeling came back a moment later when another howl came from behind.

Turning, the Alpha noted the pack members of the deceased Alpha were fighting another pack while the Alpha of that pack glowered from the trees, observing what it could and coming to its decisions.

The fight was not one to be involved in the out of territory Alpha decided and took one last look at its defeated opponent beneath it, feeling the fullness that came whenever it slew a target, though more so this time, the Alpha already felt somewhat empty without the feeling of fullness that came from defeating its opponents but this effect expanded on the previous one significantly.

An itching effect settled in its chest as it looked at the dissolving body of the defeated Alpha, some feeling compelling it to stay, but with only a glance at the melee happening a short distance away the Alpha gained its reason to ignore the sensation.

As it left the effective range of pursuit the Alpha began to feel the burning pain from its back and the exhaustion came. It did not feel exhaustion very often, usually after it was injured in some significant way it would feel this or after spending all day running at the head of the pack it would feel some small amount of tiredness.

Yet even still the exhaustion came and the Alpha sought yet another place to rest and recover, inside the territory of its defeated opponent where it would be less likely to stumble upon enemies whilst resting.

Laying down it raised its head slightly to count the remaining members of its pack and found the results brought back the burning feeling in its chest, out of the fourteen members it had entered the skirmish with only 7 remained.

It had thought its choice was correct but if this many returned to the Shadows from one fight how was it to win a fight with another pack? The problem would have to resolve itself later in the day or even on the next day as for now the Alpha needed to rest, even as the sun neared its apex over the sky.

Waking was a confusing affair for the Alpha, for a moment it felt like its perspective was all wrong as it was seeing from two different locations at once, one perspective was its own, yet the other was looking upon what appeared to be itself if its occasional glances into pools of water were anything to go by.

Almost immediately afterwards it lost that strange perspective and it looked to where it was looking from before only to see its own shadow returning to where it normally should be underneath itself and a new member of its pack laying there getting up on shaky legs.

Deciding to look into the phenomenon the Alpha walked over to the new Grimm and inspected it only to find it was not unique or special in any way aside from appearing to have a little difficulty standing upon its legs.

The Alpha shortly lost interest as nothing new happened but it did decide to rest during the day at some point to see if it could have that happen again.

Looking about the Alpha wondered how far it had travelled since its first day of being an Alpha, it had crossed a mountain at some point so it must have been a long way, and perhaps the intruder would be not far by now.

Encouraged by its thoughts on its long journey the Alpha began to consider its surroundings, with the defeated pack being most likely destroyed by its neighboring pack the land that they were currently on could probably be held quite easily just by only taking a corner of it.

Thoughts on the Intruder brought back that burning effect in its chest but the Alpha figured that the Intruder was strong and would not likely die soon, therefore leaving it plenty of time to recover from the significant damage to its back it had incurred.

Ordering its pack through the presence in the back of its mind the Alpha rested again, the slightly warm neutral feeling encompassing it as its pack went to work securing a relatively small cut of the territory of the defeated Alpha which bordered what appeared to be no packs territory.

Not in the slightest bit curious about this the pack secured every border without consideration for what may be on the other side of their new borders.

Some Time Later

A prodding sensation emanated from hindquarters of the Alpha returning it to the land of wakefulness, it briefly recalling the strange fake world it had been living in mere moments ago, this had happened occasionally since it had become an Alpha, when sleeping it would sometimes go into places not its own but not realize it didn't belong there until it woke up, very strange.

Ending its consideration on the not-world of its sleep the Alpha stretched and turned to look at whatever awoke it. Its view came across one of its pack which promptly sat down and from the presence in the Alpha's mind it found that the smaller Grimm was informing it that a patrol had found something at the edge of its territory.

Additionally the presence of the smaller Grimm left a frame of reference for the Alpha, it appeared to have been asleep recovering for almost four days, which explained why its body felt to be in such good condition.

Standing up properly the Alpha began to make its way to where the anomaly was according to the presences of its pack members, whilst being joined by the members of its pack as it went along.

Before it arrived at where the reporting patrol was the Alpha noted that its pack had almost returned to the numbers it had been at before the fight, ten Grimm surrounded it and there were the two of the patrol ahead, strange that they had replenished so swiftly.

Exiting the forest the Alpha almost immediately saw what the patrol found, this was important, ahead of it were strange… rocks and trees, they had either fallen or grown in the strangest of ways, they were almost square and they had all grown on the stone atop a cliffside.

Seeing such curiosities the Alpha walked the long way around with its pack, losing sight of the strange trees as it moved about the foothills of the mountain to try to get a vantage point.

Eventually managing to get a high point at what appeared to be the front of the strange grove the Alpha saw that there were beings moving about inside the grove, beings which had a startling resemblance to the Intruder.

They looked slightly different but almost every single one of these creatures seemed to look slightly different, much different compared to the Grimm which tended to heavily resemble the others of their species, even the, to be avoided, tusk creatures.

The heat returned yet again to its chest, this was it, the Intruder could be here, this was its species and this was clearly where they had set their territory but this presented another problem. Even as the heat inside of it burned it painfully the Alpha understood that it could not attack, if every individual was as strong as the Intruder there was no possibility of victory for the Alpha as it was.

This caused the burning heat to be suffused with an itch that could not be scratched making the Alpha pace back and forth, gathering strength should be its next goal, even if the Intruder was not here, if it gathered enough strength one day it could defeat the Intruder, perhaps it could even find out where the Intruder would have gone after defeating this pack of… intruders.

Resolved in its decision the Alpha turned and returned to its territory knowing that it no longer had to worry about its target escaping, this would be the time to prepare, but first, before it could attack the intruders it had to deal with its other neighbors.


	3. Chapter 3

I do not RWBY~

Chapter 3

Territory skirmishing is time intensive as the Alpha found out, especially when the territory that is being skirmished has a significantly superior numerical advantage.

After more than sixty sunrises the Alpha had finally managed to push its territory into the realm the Alpha it had defeated had held, this unfortunately led to the Alpha being involved in constant border raids as it found the only manner to hold off the attacks was to be personally involved in every single one of them, whereas it had noticed the enemy Alphas had not appeared in a single one of them.

This had made the itching effect in the Alpha's chest not leave it in all that time and had made the alpha quick to decide that its pack did not have a situation under control and rush to their aid, usually resulting in another raid which did need its help being overwhelmed and killed.

The number of Grimm it had in its pack had recently hit another high point of twenty-three but that number was constantly changing though the fallen members seemed to be replaced at a slightly faster pace over time and significantly faster if too many were lost at once, attempting to reach equilibrium it seemed.

Yet even as it felt its pack get closer and closer to the strength of its neighbors the realization came that the Alphas of those packs were likely dealing with their borders on other sides as well and the forces that were in combat were likely only a portion of the total.

Having its border with the intruders was a very good thing as it meant that all the Alpha had to do was have one Grimm there to make sure that the intruders never ran into any of the pack, one member of the pack instead of the eleven at each of the two borders with the enemy packs.

This was likely the reason the Alpha was able to retake the territory so easily, it had only 2 active borders where the others likely had three, four or even five borders to manage.

It also led the Alpha to question the ability of the deceased Alpha if this was all the territory it had managed, perhaps it was also a new Alpha, which would explain the average size of the territory despite all advantages. That or the former Alpha had antagonized the intruders and had them as foes as well.

Yet despite all signs pointing to it to wait and gather its strength the alpha still felt that itching in its chest making it want to push onward faster, gather more territory, increase the size of its pack, find the Intruder.

This itch was finally enough that it decided to make an assault against its southwestern neighbor whilst leaving only the minimum on defense against its southeastern neighbor to keep up appearances.

The pack ran after the Alpha's powerful stride, confident in its victory over the regular patrols around the territory it was invading especially with their leader at the head.

Arriving at the edge the Alpha began looking and sniffing to discern where the nearest victims of its assault were. After staying in place for a while the Alpha finally scented an approaching patrol upwind of it and sprinted off to claim its prize for its patience.

Leaping high up into the trees it paused just long enough for the patrol to pass beneath it before it dropped on top of them crushing the first and picking the second up into its claws before separating its head from its body.

Its stomach gradually filled somewhat and it felt the itching only heighten with the deaths of its foes. Looking about warily the Alpha checked to confirm none except its own pack had been witness to its kills.

Its pack slowly approached and gathered around to prepare for their Alpha's orders, the presence in the back of its head confirming it had all but the two left behind on the other border and the one left at the intruders border.

It felt for the presence in its mind and relayed its orders, the smaller Grimm beneath its control heading out in a fanning pattern with the Alpha at the center and leading the charge.

Eventually the net of Grimm came across another patrol and immediately wrapped around and collapsed in on the pair of unfortunate Grimm. By the time the Alpha arrived the pack had already torn apart its prey and was starting to fan out again into the previous formation.

This occurred 3 more times until the fan caught something that broke it as it began to collapse around the problem. The Alpha followed the other Grimm to the source of the break in their line and found the enemy Alpha ripping through the attacking pack whilst surrounding itself with its own pack.

Luckily the enemy Alpha was not facing the leader of the attack and it leapt down upon the larger back of the older Grimm and began ripping and slashing while the rest of the just arrived pack entered the melee resetting the odds.

The heat settled back in its chest and the Alpha saw that its pack was still behind by a few members and the surprise was unlikely to completely turn the battle, it could not rely on its pack to assist it against the other Alpha like it had previously and may even need to assist its own pack to close out the battle if it should manage to defeat its opponent first.

The older Grimm finally managed to shake off the younger and flung it against a nearby tree temporarily knocking the air from its body. Yowling into the air the older Grimm's pack forcefully disengaged from the fights they were a part of and swarmed the breathless Alpha.

Seeing the wave of enemies incoming on it the winded Alpha stood and kicked its legs back to springboard from the tree that had left it in its vulnerable state in the first place. Arms out in a scything maneuver the Alpha clawed down the advance and slew three smaller Grim with its first strike before finding itself mask to mask with the older Alpha.

Before the chill could even begin to settle in its spine it was smashed into the ground with three burning lines on its face as the larger began to attempt tear at the edges of the mask, to the younger it felt like its mask was being torn off.

The pack of the younger leapt onto the older Alpha and forcefully stole its attention due to the myriad of slashes that were rapidly accruing across its body forcing it to back off and have its own pack begin scouring the offenders off its body.

World blurry around it the younger reared up and slashed at the smaller Grimm all about it, killing yet more and gradually filling it until its stomach felt fit to burst.

The two Alphas seemed content to ruin the others pack rather than combat the other and ruin they did, within moments the numbers of both had been diminished to the bare minimum which were promptly ordered to the sides to preserve their value for a later occasion.

Having carved their way through well over a dozen lesser Grimm after having taken significant damage from the other previously, the two Alphas glared and growled as they circled around the area, weaving slowly between the trees, careful to not make their movements too swift lest the other react with their overstrained nerves.

Eventually the older lost its patience and ran at the other dragging its claws through the ground and casting dirt into the air between the two and raising its claws for a downward slam.

The younger saw its incoming death but it also saw an opportunity, the other Alpha had lifted its arms and left its chest open, yet again an opportunity that would be all or nothing presented itself and the Alpha considered for a split second before deciding it would be finished off by the smaller Grimm should it take that option.

Rolling to the side the Alpha relied on its reaction speed to kick the hands out from under the enemy Alpha as it landed, forcing its hands to the side and causing the larger creature to collapse.

Turning and pouncing on its vulnerable target the younger Alpha jammed its claws into the back of the head and just behind the top of the mask, forcing a loud scream out from the Alpha beneath it for its efforts before it leapt towards a tree trunk, forcing the younger between it and the tree, crushing it.

Winded again the younger idly noted that it was the same tree it had been knocked into previously before raking its feet along the lower back of the one who pinned it and reaching its arm around the neck before slicing it.

It felt the cut go deep and something important gave, despite that the older still kept shoving the spines on its back deeper into the chest of its killer attempting to the cave its chest.

The strength behind the shoving Alpha gradually ebbed and the cracking and shattering of bones of the younger slowed to a stop before all motion ceased from both of the Alphas.

Seeing their leaders defeated the two packs remainders continued their fight with the odds tilted significantly in the favor of the older Alpha's pack.

Yet even as the pack of the younger was losing the fight they felt the presence from their Alpha which demanded they move the fight to right next to their Alpha where it might join them.

Running back to the two horrifically wounded Alphas the younger pack turned and continued its fight, within lunging distance of the entangled Alphas.

When one of the older pack Grimm lunged the younger Alpha swung its long arm out and cleaved the arm off of the offending Grimm changing the numbers to be equal on both sides.

Having realized that to be too near the wounded Alpha was a death sentence the Grimm began prowling about the suddenly defended pack waiting for the Grimm whom their leader had left to guard the borders to return, the numbers would grant them victory then.

Through the haze of near unconsciousness the Alpha realized that it needed more Grimm which only seemed to happen when it was unconscious, leading it to the simple idea that it should just go to sleep now that it had put fear into its foes about getting too near.

Slipping away the Alpha felt the warm effect in its chest from seeing its pack defend it before it faded back into the fake world of its sleep.

Later at Sunset

The Alpha woke to the phenomenon it had previously observed, only, instead of having two perspectives it was from three, two of the perspectives were facing hostile Grimm and fighting for their tired, just created lives.

Feeling full yet again the Alpha lifted its head to observe its surroundings, what it saw did not encourage it, instead it saw the decaying corpses of dozens of lesser Grimm all around it.

Feeling through the presence it noticed that more than half of the corpses were its own pack, members just created and immediately forced into combat to save their new leader.

Despite this the Alpha felt the warm feeling settle in its chest as it saw how successful its pack had been in defending the tree their leader was partially embedded in due to its spines being forced into the trunk while it grappled with its most recently defeated notable foe, the former Alpha of this territory.

The total number was significant but the deaths in the area hung around somewhat giving the Alpha a good idea of the casualties, it appeared the territory border guards of the dead Alpha had returned, no small number, approximately sixty or so, though unlikely they all came at the same time or even the constantly bolstered defenses would have been swiftly overrun.

Moving its limbs slowly the Alpha gradually began the process of removing itself from the trunk it found itself stuck to. After yowling in pain several times attempting to remove itself, specifically whilst stretching newly repaired tendons and muscles, it succeeded and extricated itself from its predicament, promptly falling to the ground in further pain.

Standing up to a safe slouching height the Alpha observed the last of the fights going on about it, most of them were between a small group of unsteady and weak pack Grimm against the significantly superior longer lived Grimm of the dead pack.

Walking to one such desperate battle the Alpha reached down and stabbed the Grimm in the back, saving one lucky pack Grimm which promptly stood up, its throat only slightly gushing blood. Such wounds would heal given some time.

Feeling quite empty in its stomach area the Alpha decided to search out the rest of the patrols of this territory and give itself that full effect again, for some reason it wanted to feel full and eliminating the last of the patrols was a perfect objective which would also cause this.

Stretching its sore limbs it focused on its body and noticed it was slightly taller over its pack, though that was likely only due to this pack being made of mostly new members.

This was now its territory, the land it held, it ruled and now it had borders, many of them, it would need to be more active than ever before but it could do more than survive, it would thrive, nay rule these lands sooner rather than later and once it held these lands… well, then the intruders would feel its presence and perhaps it would meet its true target, the Intruder itself.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It had been many sunrises since last it bothered to look down on the intruder's grove, the place they made their territory, its secondary goal when taking the territories of the land. And take it had, many battles had taken place, many battles for its right to live over other Alphas, but, in the end, its right to live always shone through over its foes.

It ruled the territory on every side of the grove for many sunrises of travel around, so much territory did it rule that even the tusked packs respected its rule and very rarely attacked its pack as they knew the retribution which would befall them should they err.

Many of the other creatures of Grimm had not been as agreeable to the change of ownership such as the large arms, the scaly ones and the giant many-legs, these ones required significant effort to either remove or pacify, the fat ones were perfectly fine with this and continued on as they always have, roaming about entering and leaving territories.

The Alpha had found that while taking territories it grew faster than it felt was normal, it even confirmed this when it connected presences with a rival Alpha at the edge of its vast territory and exchanged senses and feelings until the other Alpha understood that there was no further intention to spread, it already had its target and even if it did continue spreading one day it would be to the north.

Time was on the Alpha's side but even so it acted as though it had none and entered every fight it could within its territory to further its understanding of combat.

The largest reason it stood there at the top of the mountainous ridge looking down at the intruder's grove was that it had found that the intruders had started to venture into the Alpha's territory more frequently of late, significantly more frequently.

Whereas when the Alpha first arrived here the intruders would enter the forest very briefly only to hunt the non-Grimm creatures of the forest then leave just as quickly and not return for many sunrises. Now, however, they ventured into the forest almost every day and sometimes even the smaller intruders would come, the loud ones which never seemed to do anything but make noise and run about.

The small ones would often be rounded up shortly afterward by the taller ones though, leading the Alpha to assume the taller ones were the Alphas and the smaller the lesser, a logical assumption it concluded.

But even despite the Alpha having to remain at a safe distance to avoid detection it began to learn things, things which it had never even considered. The first, language. The intruders used sounds which caused the others to react or do certain things, at first this meant nothing to the Alpha but after some time it began to see the correlation.

The second was weapons, instruments that were designed from the environment or somehow made of shiny stone which allowed the claw-less intruders to have claws anyway.

The third and final was that the intruders were not strong, they were not like the Intruder which seemed to share a species with them, they were inferior in every way even with the hazy memories the Alpha had from its days as a lesser Grimm.

The intruders were vulnerable, perhaps not universally, the Intruder had taught the Alpha that, but their species was not all as strong as the Intruder and when the Alpha learned this the last of the chilling effect in its spine when it thought of them went away and all that was left was the burning it had felt so scarcely since the first time.

This was a normal thing when seeing the intruders it had found when it conferred with the not-enemy border Alpha, the feeling was universal across Grimm, though it was not sure why it felt like this, just that it was fact, in fact, the other Alpha was somewhat curious why it had not already tried to destroy the intruder grove but it pushed no further as the intruders were not in its territory therefore it did not need to deal with them.

This revelation led the Alpha to start its observation in the first place, the intruders weren't going anywhere and neither was the Alpha, especially now that it knew.

Its first act was to allow the intruders to roam further into its lands before they met resistance, it had only taken a few hundred sunrises before the intruders became suddenly comfortable with wandering into the forest which was formerly so dangerous to them originally so letting them go further should make them even more comfortable.

This caused it to be able to learn more by listening in on more of the creatures though when it tried to get its pack to let it listen in through the presence it found that its pack suddenly became extremely unruly, to the point of the Alpha forcing its will through the presence.

By forcing its pack to follow its choice the Alpha was capable of making them get closer and closer to the intruders without them getting noticed, in fact, after having exerted its will its pack responded so well that it no longer needed to actively follow their actions to understand what they were doing, they were simply like another smaller version of the presence in its mind, always there.

Over the course of many sunrises the Alpha learned of many of the individuals inside the grove and even started to understand their language in a very rudimentary manner, though it was reasonably sure it could not replicate the sounds necessary for it to speak the language, not that it mattered.

During these sunrises the other Grimm in the area slowly became agitated, to the point of seeking out the Alpha and attacking it. These actions began to consume more and more of the Alpha's time until it decided enough was enough.

The fateful morning had started out simply enough, a morning hunting party headed out to the woods where they were promptly tailed and observed by a multitude of very well hidden pack members.

The hunters spoke to each other and made the occasional language based coughing sound, called laughing by them, as apparently according to them the something had something a daughter, it did not sound important but every tidbit would create better understanding so they listened.

A sudden scream that sounded suspiciously like 'Grimm' rang through the clearing and the party of hunters immediately zeroed in on the source of the scream, a high pitched intruder was staring down a giant many-legs which had just speared one of the Alpha's pack for getting in its way.

Feeling the burning again the Alpha began to make its way to the location from the cave it had been resting in before, while watching through its pack's eyes, it had watched another creature directly oppose its will.

In the meantime the screaming intruder had been desperately attempting to escape the larger creature with only a shattered trail of trees to speak of the effectiveness its strategy had shown so far.

With every strike the many-legs got closer to its target and also closer to the other group of intruders, this entire situation had the chance to lure out The Intruder but it also had the chance to only make it run further if it was still here.

Urging its pack to destroy the many-legs before the situation could spiral further out of control the Alpha pushed its well-honed body to the limit while following its pack in its mind and directing their actions.

The high pitched intruder finally arrived with the other intruders whom had begun shooting arrows at the many-legs to little effect, specifically no effect except for one individual that was consistently hitting the eyes of the large creature.

Just before the many-legs could crash into their lines and scatter them like dust in the wind its pack had coordinated enough to leap from the trees and both hold its claws closed as well as weigh down the large spiked tail it was constantly flailing around.

With the pack holding down all the dangerous parts of the many-legs the intruders leapt into action, their sturdier weaponry coming into play, a series of very strange looking implements ranging from long sharp edged to wood handled spikes which actually penetrated the bone of the creature.

The intruders swiftly began to injure the creature in joints and any remaining weak point whilst trying to keep their killing of its pack to a minimum due to the likelihood that if they killed too many the many-claws would begin wreaking more havoc.

Even as the pack and intruders cut and clawed the many-legs it continued thrashing, killing the occasional pack member and knocking aside the intruders constantly. The pack numbers were beginning to dwindle and the more dangerous parts of the many-legs were becoming exposed rapidly increasing the danger for anything nearby.

With a final slam the many-legs managed to dislodge the last of the pack on its tail and then reared back to pierce the intruder that currently had its weapon jammed into an eye socket as deep as it could get it.

With a loud sound of slicing the stinger found its home lodged in the wrong target, the last pack member had leapt into the way and the stinger of the many-legs found itself stuck at the same moment the Alpha leapt in.

Jaw open and claws extended the two giants crashed into the other and the many-legs was found wanting, the many wounds it had already suffered were too much and the claws of the creature could not exert enough force to prevent the huge claws of the Alpha from forcing their way under the plates in its tried and true method.

Seeing what could only possibly be their doom so far from their grove the intruders backed away until they found a spot where the previously felled trees created a natural barricade and proceeded to prepare themselves for fighting whichever of the Grimm juggernauts survived their strange fight.

Feeling its death approaching as the powerful claws of the Alpha slid closer and closer to something it couldn't just shrug off or heal the man-legs became desperate, slamming the ineffective Grimm covered tail into the Alpha repeatedly and trying to cut off the legs with its pincers.

Life ebbed from the great beast as the claws finally tore the mask off from creature it grappled, blood covered flesh showed only briefly before something overcame the Alpha and it bit into the flesh ripping and tearing and forcing the flesh down its throat by utilizing the before now unused muscles it had within.

Something inside of it was filling, what it was it didn't understand but it was a similar feeling it got from killing its foes, simply more… extreme, a feeling it didn't want to lose so it kept going, feasting itself on the gradually dissolving black flesh of its prey.

The taste was perfection and it lost itself in ruining the creature in front of it before more of the delicious being could disappear, so lost in its actions the Alpha forgot entirely about the intruders.

A precise arrow reminded it why it should not have forgotten, piercing its eye the wound dripping tears of blood on the non-damaged side of its mask, the teardrop shaped damage to its mask from when it first became an Alpha mirroring the effect but without blood.

Stopping and looking at the intruders it began walking, putting its claw partially over the eye without an arrow in it to prevent the affliction from being replicated.

A deep growl rumbled forth as the heat settled in its chest again, before it stopped, remembering briefly to not attack these intruders, they were the lure, they were necessary.

Its forward momentum halting the intruders looked on in confusion as the large beast which could likely tear them apart paused as if contemplating something before relaxing its muscles and turning to leave, a few pack members which had just arrived following in its wake.

The voices of the intruders followed the Alpha as it left, words of confusion but one word which stuck with it even as it arrived back at its cave to rest and recover, 'Saved us'.

The Alpha growled as an itchy feeling filled it… it knew the meaning of those words and it didn't like them one bit.


	5. Chapter 5

I do not own RWBY~

Chapter 5

The Alpha could not sleep, it knew it needed to, desperately so, it expended a force of sixteen of its pack to destroy the many-legs it had just killed, these were not numbers it could just throw away.

Despite the success the Alpha had had in dominating and expanding its territory it was still very young compared to every Alpha it had come across, this translated to less pack members to hold its territory.

Nevertheless it was still superior in numbers to Alphas that had few enough scars they were probably closer to its own age, it was not sure why it had more members but assumed it had something to do with the foes it had beaten and the size of the territory it managed.

Desperately willing sleep to come did nothing, only prolonged its perception of its inability to find the rest it so desired and all because of the words from the intruders which echoed around its head, 'Saved Us'.

The words set that itchy feeling into overdrive and the presence in the back of its mind wavered before returning to its previous steadfast vigil over its pack, ignoring the physical-chemical side again.

The itch would not go away, it would not go away, and the Alpha could not get rid of the feeling no matter what, something compelled it, told it, nay, whispered to it that it must rid the world of them.

As the effect started to overwhelm the Alpha the presence exerted itself, and suddenly the itch went away, leaving only the presence of mind to realize that it was being manipulated by something, somewhere and the thought brought yet another effect, the burning.

Freed from one only to be afflicted with the other the Alpha could tell the difference, whereas the itch made it uncomfortable and feel weak the burning was the opposite, it felt like it was right, normal and energy abounded, enough to run through the forests far forever, or more specifically, to rip apart everything that opposed it again and again.

Yet again the presence stepped in and yet again the Alpha felt full control return, sudden apathy overcoming it, these things were becoming a problem and one of them didn't even feel like it originated from the Alpha itself.

Pulling its claws from the walls of the cave they had somehow become embedded in the Alpha settled down again, determined to take advantage of its current apathy to acquire the rest it and its pack needed.

One hundred sunrises later

The lockdown the intruders had put on all individuals and small groups leaving the grove appears to have been lifted, the Alpha had started to become impatient, it had even bothered to find a new way to measure its days other than scratches on its cave wall.

Full moons only occurred after quite a few sunrises, they would be an easier manner to track the time as it waited, patience dwindling, for the intruders to come back out so that it could continue learning about them.

The first party to venture out did so while covered in a strange metal pelt, they also smelled differently, as though they did not hail from the grove, they did, however, smell of danger and even some blood.

The group consisted of four individuals, the first of which wore the most of the shiny pelt, the foreign intruder did not even show a bit of the bare flesh that most of the intruders had visible, this clearly marked it as dangerous and possibly very, very old, after all, only the oldest Grimm could have so much bone armor that they appeared fully covered. It also carried a large shiny stick with a block at the end that pointy on one edge and sharp on the other.

The next was smaller and was not so heavily covered, only enough that major areas of the body were covered, much like more powerful Grimm or somewhat old regular Grimm. Additionally it held a large but thin piece of the shiny stone that it held in front of itself along with a straight pointy and sharp piece of shiny stone that it hid in some pouch on its side.

The third was diminutive, thinner than even the second whom was thinner than the first. This one did not have any shiny stone on it as a pelt, instead wore what appeared to be normal but differently colored flesh over itself. In its hands it held a stick which seemed to have something thin like a spider web bowing it, in fact it looked just like the arrow shooters which had harmed it and the many-legs, it had been called a bow.

The last had some minimum amount of shiny stone on it but also had many pouches all over itself. For armaments the last one had many small claws all over it which seemed to be simply smaller versions of the weapon the second wielded.

These four seemed very confident and given that one of them was probably so old that the Alphas age was a mere blink of time it wanted nothing to do with them, in fact it would probably have to sacrifice pack members just to keep them distracted.

Having retreated back to its cave the Alpha watched from the perspective of its pack, having them follow or lay in wait to observe the group, hopefully never being spotted, though the Alpha had limited confidence in its ability to direct its pack well enough to avoid being discovered by the old one.

The group headed straight for the forest in the direction of the fight where the Alpha had beaten the many-legs, they spoke to each other highly animatedly and were so loud they scared away the normal animals of the forest and the Alpha was beginning to reconsider its ability to keep its pack hidden.

Arriving at the scene of devastation the group began to look around at the trees and point out to each other whenever they found a claw marking from the many-legs or one they found that belonged to the Alpha.

After much of the day passed the group sat down and began eating things from pouches they had carried with them, apparently oblivious to the fact that the Alpha had taken a risk and smuggled its pack even closer to observe.

They continued speaking at length using words the Alpha had heard either sparingly or not at all but even so the pack was too far away to hear everything it needed, it found that context was necessary to understanding these languages, trying to find words it had managed to figure the meaning of the Alpha had its pack moving closer and closer.

Eventually the Alpha's luck could hold no longer and one of its pack stepped on a twig, promptly snapping it and causing the group to snap to attention weapons already lifted and ready, moving towards the sound.

Aborting its self-made task immediately the Alpha had all but one of the pack members in the area jump up and run, unfortunately startling the group even more, causing the bow wielder to begin firing which killed three of its pack before they could get enough distance and around enough trees.

Beating down the rising heat in its chest the Alpha continued observing the group from the lone remaining pack member, the opportunity too great to become afraid of just one member of its pack dying.

The group continued looking around nervously until they apparently decided the area was safe enough before dividing into two smaller groups, the old one going with the bow wielder and the two lightly armored individuals heading in the other direction.

Suddenly curious as to why they would split up in enemy territory the Alpha began to lose its wariness and decided that it could continue tailing them.

The two groups were clearly uncomfortable and were staring around in every direction for movement, luckily the pack was placing themselves along the path and never moved after they settled in.

Not sure what they were after the Alpha simply observed them as the day slowly faded until the sun was barely visible, which was the point the group decided to head back to the grove, going to the gates of the grove the group yelled inside and the gates were opened mere moments later.

Rolling over and kneading the stone walls with its claws the Alpha thought on the group, they were not as dangerous as The Intruder but they did have the same feeling, even if it was almost positive the fully armored one was not actually old but that instead that the shiny stone was worn like the pelts the intruders always wore over most of their flesh.

The next time they came out the Alpha would need to test them to see how dangerous they were, but in the meantime it had sleep to get and then borders to personally patrol and all before the sun rose again.

The Alpha was not one to leave the physical defense of its territory to its pack alone, it also may have been running low on aggressive Grimm in its territory and needed to search for a new source of Grimm it could kill and subsequently consume.

Perhaps it should stop eating the superior Grimm it came across that fought it, after all it always got a wave of disapproval from the presence whenever it indulged in that particular hobby.

Sunrise, Second day of Group Exploration

The Alpha sat on the same stone it had sat in since it first discovered the overlook of the intruder's grove, the stone almost smooth from the constant visitor, and watched the group head out again with the intruders yelling after them.

This time the group seemed much more energetic as they trotted into the forest, they were heading to a location in the forest they had been at previously, incidentally the location of a fight the Alpha had with its most recent opposition to territory inflation.

Observing carefully the group stayed like that for a very long time again until eventually the intruder with the handheld armor and longer point sharp stone weapon cried out in what did not appear an urgent manner as the others merely glanced at him briefly before unpacking the food they brought.

Yet again they split up and began searching for something but appeared unsuccessful again, the Alpha becoming more and more interested in what they were looking for.

Unfortunately for the group the Alpha had not found anything interesting in its territory and they would likely fail as well, though perhaps they might find something interesting or dangerous that the Alpha could procure later.

The next few sunrises occurred much the same way until the Group got dangerously close to its cave, the Alpha panicking and sending pack members to kill them or drag away their corpses so as to distract them.

The strategy backfired however and now the group seemed more determined to find whatever they were looking for, though they did at least head back to the grove for now.

Tonight the Alpha would have to take on a few many-legs, which had been forcing their way onto the territory it had rightfully stolen from its defeated foes.

But for now the Alpha could not think as cleverly as it wanted and therefore was starting to become frustrated, nothing a quick bit of rest couldn't do.

It needed the rest, perhaps the world would be easier to deal with in the morning…

'Saved Us'…

Sleep did not come easily.


	6. Chapter 6

I do not own RWBY~

Chapter 6

It knew it would happen, soon most likely, the group would come and they were dangerous, perhaps not a guarantee of death but nevertheless the Alpha had not gotten this far without thinking ahead.

Actually, the Alpha thought that was exactly how it had gotten ahead of its many foes, by being more forceful, sudden and cutthroat. Perhaps there was merit in doing so here, after all, it had won every one of its fights up to this point by rushing in with bare minimum regard for its own safety.

Yes, the more it thought about not thinking about it the more the chill in its spine went away, which the Alpha much preferred to not have to deal with.

Having relieved itself of the awkward effects on its mind the Alpha set out to begin subjugation, the many-legs acted up and now they must be forced down, hopefully none of them were too old, the Alpha did not favor its chances against a many-legs that was too much larger than itself.

Settling its pack into a consistent running pace they soon arrived at the caves which the many-legs hid in, only rarely leaving. Sending a pack member in to tease them out the Alpha began the waiting game whilst micromanaging the reactions and baiting being done by said pack member.

The cave was, naturally, very dark, thankfully however the pack had excellent vision for low light situations and also that many-legs, like most Grimm, have very luminous red eyes, not hard to spot once opened.

With a sudden crash and the piercing discomfort which came from being ejected from the suddenly vacant mind of its bait the Alpha was shaken as its perspective yet again took the hit.

The bait seemed to have done its job however, the many-legs were coming, and in no small number, the largest out front, shielding the smaller which appeared to be digging a wide hole of some sort, likely to make their position harder to assail.

Their charge stopped abruptly only a short distance from the cave entrance, yet even from here the Alpha could see it was outclassed by no small measure, where had they all come from? The territory was quite efficiently locked down and something as large as a many-legs would have been noticed without too much difficulty.

This fight would be one of attrition, the many-legs did not come into existence in the same way the pack did, they took time, much time, to become what they were feared as when fully grown, though the Alpha was beginning to question its experience at this point due to the large amount of them having suddenly appeared.

Neither did they heal swiftly, the Alpha snarled whilst the warm feeling diffused into its body and the pack sensing its intentions charged the small hill before the cave, intent on wounding several and possibly even killing one, unlikely though that may be with only fifty of the pack here.

Watching from a distance as it so hated to do the Alpha fidgeted as the itchy feeling settled again, it wanted to join the fight so badly but instead it had to do what it had seen almost every other alpha it had come across do, observe.

The many-legs working together were a near impenetrable wall as the pack arrived, crashing like a wave against it, yet the many-legs were highly unaccustomed to working together and it showed, every time one large creature would focus on a target that was already being focused by another they would briefly clash their tails before getting back to spearing the smaller Grimm.

These brief moments of weakness were capitalized on by the observant Alpha and it had its pack force their way between clashing many-legs so that they might surround one and wound it further.

The force of the pack was somewhat miniscule but they were being told where to go with significant precision which caused a pack member to crash onto the face of the larger Grimm and successfully jam its claws into an eye before repeating the process thrice more then getting spiked by the tail and promptly torn apart by the pincers.

Though the pack had already lost twenty members in the 30 seconds of the battle, almost a casualty a second, the many-legs were backing towards their cave and the smaller members.

The warm feeling returning in full force the Alpha began to move forward, still very aware that a many-legs charge could and would kill it should it wander too close but something was off, the ground quaked slightly from the power of the many-legs but it also quaked with something else.

Wishing to find the reason for this the Alpha stop and just listened which apparently saved its life as at that moment a spike shot forth from the ground where it was about to walk to nicking its snout and drawing blood.

The rumbling was the creatures burrowing underneath the ground! Realizing the peril it could be in right that moment the Alpha leapt for the nearest tree as two more spikes filled the space it had just occupied.

The Alpha did not know how to resolve this other than run, it could not claw them, they were covered in the most natural armor available, it could not follow them into their dug tunnels for not only was that a suicidal idea anyway but in addition it would have to break through their line.

Growling, the Alpha balanced itself as the tree itself shook from the efforts of the underground foes, should it recall its pack? The benefits were mostly short term, the pack could be back to full size in only a few sunrises but it would be down quite a few in the meantime should something occur, which, given the group of intruders getting almost all the way to the Alpha's cave was a rather high likelihood.

Then the Alpha remembered, to think ahead was to invite disaster, it must forge forward regardless of the situation it may find itself in, though perhaps it could preserve itself in this battle which could not, nor was expected to, be a victory.

The Alpha then leapt to another tree before hitting the ground and running off, its body on autopilot as its put its full attention into forcing the many-legs to pay for every pack member slain as much as it possibly could.

Swinging up on a tail as it skewered a sibling a pack member leapt behind the lines with the intention of joining its cut group behind the enemy lines. A smaller many-legs jabbed its tail into one of its assailants who ignored the attack and tore the pincers off the small many-legs before biting into the mask and crushing the large bugs mask.

The front line had almost entirely dissolved by now and the humongous many-legs turned their attention inward only to find a massacre not in their favor. Whilst many-legs were vastly superior once they had grown old enough the younger ones were far from invulnerable and the ripped apart stingers pincers and legs told the entire story.

Less than five members of the pack remained, four of which were holding a tail whilst the fifth rapidly and repeatedly jabbed its claws into the eyes of a medium sized many-legs before all of them were flung off by the creatures death throes.

The momentarily disoriented Grimm were summarily executed by the returning front line many-legs with the exception of one which made a beeline for the cave entrance whilst avoiding deathblows from the many sizes of highly lethal Grimm surrounding it on every side.

Making it to the cave the swift creature ran deeper inside looking for anything which might make its death worth it. As it ran further and further it found nothing but a somewhat deep running cave infested with tiny many-legs which only increased in number as it went deeper.

Finally it ran into a full sized many-legs which was staying still as it guarding something, which automatically meant it was something the last of the pack must see at all cost.

Diving toward the wider spaced glowing red eyes of the massive silhouette it jammed a single claw into one of the glowing ruby eyes before running along the body at an angle to hopefully avoid the tail.

Partially failing almost immediately the tail spike shallowly pierces the paw before stopping on its own armored carapace allowing the smaller Grimm to tear a long gash open in its paw whilst pulling away.

One paw crippled and only able to provide support with no motion or flexibility the finesse of the creature dropped immensely though it had little further need for finesse as it leapt off the huge creature behind it, immediately noticing an acrid scent in the air, the smell of bone and claw on dirt and stone.

They had dug! The creatures had created a tunnel into their territory right into this cave, they were making this a staging ground for further assaults on the territory of the Alpha!

Hobbling further the last member of the attack saw an edge to the stone path and heard the opening into a huge room stretched out beneath it, stopping at the edge a single stone clattered down into abyss beneath it.

Glittering gems glinted in the dark as it lit with the light of eyes, a few dozen at first then more and more until the ceiling of the cavern glinted with their shine, a tremble in the cave behind it the only warning before a floating sensation filled it and it saw its own body crumple to the ground, the Shadows beckoning the creature home again.

Later within the Alpha's Cave

They were invading, what caused this the Alpha had no idea, surely it had not displaced so many of the many-legs that they had rallied to destroy its territory? The Many-legs were never group hunters nor would ever be if what the Alpha had observed during that first battle was true, they fought together with only a bare minimum of tolerance for each other.

The only reason the battle hadn't been a complete loss was the knowledge the last of the assault had given the Alpha, the knowledge of the tunnel and more importantly the invading force within said tunnels.

The chill returned and the Alpha began trotting back and forth within its cave contemplating on how it could resolve this situation it had found itself in. The best solution it could think of was to ram constant assault forces against the location until it gave beneath the pressure which would also fit in its plan of not thinking too deeply about these thing. Which it was failing at currently.

A warning suddenly came from the presence as a pack member was suddenly removed from perception, it was close, right outside the cave in fact. Someone was here and it most likely wasn't the many-legs which meant that it had to be the group of intruders.

Why had it thought that not worrying about it was a good idea? It was a bad idea, a very bad idea, why, why, why… the pit of its stomach twisted and burned even as chill settled there. Muscles tensing, jaw clenching the Alpha rose to its full height, scraping the ceiling with the spikes on its back and facing the cave entrance.

Clanking filled the cave as the intruders entered with their shiny stone armor and weapons, the preamble to the imminent demise of the Alpha ringing as the one wielding the pole weapon tapped the shiny metal capped bottom of the weapon against the ground rhythmically.

"Whew, that one looks kinda weird, wondering if he's the reason for the lack of Beowulf activity in the area." The intruder group arrived and the short one with the bow spoke out in a series of words the Alpha mostly understood.

Lining themselves up to block the entrance from the Alpha the group began speaking to each other, clearly showing off their bravado and getting ready for combat at the same time.

Tilting its shiny head the largest one spoke to the others, "Be careful, we haven't seen its pack anywhere, they could be waiting in ambush somewhere, in the meantime the big guy here needs taken out so we can lower… the admittedly startlingly low Grimm activity…"

The one with the many short claws spoke up next, "You suppose this guy is the leader of this area? Maybe he's the reason activity is so low, infighting and all, the villagers did say a bunch of Beowulves helped them take out a large Deathstalker."

Finally the lightly armored one with the long claw looked at its fellow group members, "Grimm don't help humans ever, I don't believe that one would be a difference, let's take it down and we can worry about regional consequences later".

Understanding the gist of their conversations the Alpha barked and slightly retreated looking back and forth quickly for a way out and before growling and crouching slightly preparing for the death struggle.

The fully armored one stepped forward first and a strange light surrounded its body before it concentrated in front and remained there, the other three also shone with light though each was slightly different and none acted the same way as the last.

Perhaps now would be a good time to go back on its foolish idea of not thinking ahead and begin considering a plan to win this fight the Alpha thought, even if the fight was feeling like it was about to be very one-sided.

Lunging and swiping its large, sharp claws the Alpha swung at the armored one in the front and immediately its claws were repelled off the light in front of the vanguard without even touching it.

Recovering into a slide the Alpha used its significant bulk to simply bowl over the front line just as the lightly armored one joined the fully armored one causing both to go crashing to the ground with two loud grunts and a lot of clanking in the case of the larger one.

Having caught its attackers by surprise the Alpha leapt to its feet just in time to see the feet of one of the group disappear from the top of its vision and a sharp pain to run through its back, the creature had leapt onto the Alpha's back!

Moving its arm back the Alpha was then hit by an arrow in the joint of its left arm which promptly exploded, separating the limb from its owner entirely and dropping it face forward to the floor.

Dumbstruck by the sheer power behind the attack the Alpha was stunned before the small claws stabbing into its back reminded it of the life or death struggle prompting it to roll forward in a manner slightly reminiscent of the tusked ones which forced a pleasant to the ears grunt from the one on its back and a sudden lack of stabbing sensations.

Having arrived at the location of the bow wielder the Alpha bit down on the offending weapon and arm then began awkwardly slashing at its stuck target with its only remaining arm.

Unfortunately the slashes lacked force behind them as the Alpha was essentially holding itself up by is legs and chin which was partially occupied with attempting to disarm the one who had already done so much damage to it from only one attack.

"Get the hell offa her!" shouted a voice from behind the Alpha, which was the only precursor the Grimm would receive before it was launched into the ceiling by a glowing circular symbol beneath it.

Having not let go of its prey the bow wielder was still stuck, futilely slamming its free arm against the snout of the large creature whilst screaming in pain.

Falling back to the ground almost immediately due to the short ceiling the Alpha was greeted to the sight of the polearm wielder stabbing upward at its chest in what would very likely be a lethal blow should it connect.

Swinging its lone arm at the polearm it was able to swat aside the weapon partially before being stopped on that barrier of light again, the barrier flickering ever so slightly underneath the blow.

Crashing into the ground the lightly armored one smashed the flat plate of shiny metal into the Alpha's snout then jamming the long claw into its mouth and beginning to leverage the Alpha's jaws open.

Holding on as though it felt this was an important battle to win the Alpha kept its jaw clamped as hard as it could until the two others came and jammed their instruments of death into its jaw as well.

Slowly giving the Alpha then noticed a glowing circular symbol appearing inside its mouth with it only able to see the outside edges which caused it to open its mouth and dart back, releasing the torn and mangled limb of the bow wielder.

The fully armored one stepped forward and hefted its long weapon but did not move as the other two knelt down next to the injured one, "That's way too much blood, I have bandages, help Anton, I can keep her with us until we can get back to the village. Anton! Begin our exit strategy, I'll use my glyphs to knock him around if you need help but you need to yell if you need them, I need to keep Catrine stable!"

The small claw one stood up and rejoined 'Anton' and together they rushed me, though small claw was just behind Anton. Ramming into the Alpha, Anton was met with limited success even though it was down a limb but right behind Anton small claw leapt, jamming the two held claws into the only active arm.

Feeling the pain and slowing of functioning in its only remaining arm, the Alpha turned and leapt for the exit which had been oh so nicely left open to it even as the small clawed one held on while creating some glowing light from its body.

The Alpha had a chilling feeling in its stomach from seeing that foreboding glow again and attempted to knock the glowing creature off itself as quickly as possible.

Only a moment later small claw leapt off of its own volition and landed, its mouth curling upwards at the edges, an expression the Alpha had begun to associate with the 'happy' thing it had observed from the intruders.

It had more important things to do than worry about the nonsensical expression on the face of its attacker, specifically running to anywhere but here, ideally a cave where it would be safe until it could heal, though it had never had to heal such a massive wound as a missing limb before.

After a while of running the Grimm felt as though it had been running in circles, there was the tree it had accidentally hit with a rough bone plated shoulder and scraped significantly, this was not natural, the intruders must be the cause of this.

Looking around carefully the Alpha searched for its tormentor until it found a space up in a tree which it could ever so slightly discern the silhouette of an intruder, though it would not smell the intruder.

Continuing to move forward the Alpha pretended like nothing had changed, though it started to change its path ever so slightly until it was directly below the suspicious area.

Leaping straight up the Alpha was rewarded with a startled exclamation and a solid full paw smack throwing the small clawed one to the ground.

"This puts me in a bind, was kinda hoping Anton would have caught up by now, alright big guy! It's just you and me and I have never lost to a dumb beast before, nor am I intending on ruining that perfect streak now!"

Throwing one of its small claws at the Alpha caused it to open its eyes wider at seeing them not even stick in, just bounce off. "That hit musta dazed me more than I thought…"

Falling atop the claw wielder the Alpha pinned it to the ground beneath its feet then smashed the claws from its hands before slashing its helpless victim repeatedly, having noticed when it was chewing on the bow wielder that intruders seemed to have some sort of invisible shell around them, so as to destroy that barrier and end this threat to its life.

Eventually the barrier stopped protecting small claw and the Alpha stopped its attacks… perhaps… it could keep this one, hold onto it to learn the language of the intruders better, find out what it might know, no reason not to, it was unable to fight back now after all.

The presence in its mind poked briefly as the thought become more solidified, causing the Alpha to reconsider. No, the intruders could be observed from a distance, keeping one would only be dangerous and the Alpha couldn't speak the intruder's language anyway, how would it get the information from small claw anyway.

"…Hey… Big guy… Don't suppose you'd mind… Just leaving me here would ya? Kinda got… some…*cough* Family members that might miss me… hate to leave… The little tykes on their own… Mom ain't exactly… super… reliable… late… ly…"

The intruder became quieter as it spoke, it spoke of family, something the Alpha did not quite understand, even after listening to it being referenced quite often by the intruders.

Then another odd thing happened, the intruders eyes began to leak, water coming from them as the eyes themselves slowly started to lose their sharp colored contrast, blurring and glazing over.

Then it felt it, the feeling it got whenever it killed a powerful foe, the feeling of being filled, but it was different, there was no surge of wonderful feeling, no sudden sense of victory, no, instead the Alpha was filled with something else, an uncomfortable feeling it didn't understand.

The weight settled in its chest, constricted its throat, tightened its breaths, it was wrong, all wrong, it didn't want this, it never wanted this, but it wouldn't go away, the feeling stayed, growing stronger as it stared into the lost eyes of the intruder that refused to fade away into the Shadows.

It stayed there, staring into those eyes for what felt like hours while the presence in its mind howled with all its might to notice, to realize, yet the Alpha sat, waiting for… something, anything to change.

Eventually the Alpha felt some need, some primal pull and it lifted its monumentally heavy head to the sky where it released the thing in its chest to the shattered moon, howling with a force it had never before felt.

Yet its howls did nothing to appease the pain in its chest and the pain only became greater as it sat there amongst the trees with small claw, howling to the moon its pain.

Merciful sleep overcame it and the last it remembered was the presence reaching forth and smothering the pain.


	7. Chapter 7

I do not own RWBY~

Chapter 7

It woke to the sound of breathing surrounding it, splitting its eyes open the Alpha observed its new surroundings, awash with black, white and red.

Its pack had returned in the night, not back to its previous power but all the members at the border had returned, called here by the presence or newly sent from the Shadows, fifty six strong the Alpha felt warmth in its chest whilst observing the many creatures arrayed in a half circle outwards, all looking to their leader.

The Alpha needed to deal with the intruders, they had proven themselves the greater threat compared to the many-legs and it could brook no further interference to its mission.

Which, as it thought on its self-imposed mission, it realized it had strayed again, The Intruder, this was its goal, the territory was a secondary objective, a means to an end, building its strength.

Perhaps… it thought, it would be both safer and more expedient to move, it had proven its ability to force its way into creating a territory, it could succeed again, and it would not even set it back by any significant amount.

Why did it need to deal with the many-legs and armored intruders anyway? They were too dangerous to take significant advantage from any fight, yes, this was the logical choice.

Looking down the Alpha saw small claws laying beneath its remaining arm, yes, this land held nothing it could not simply find elsewhere, feeling the constricting of its chest again the Alpha finally got up on its three limbs and leaned down to small claws.

For some reason it did not understand fully the Alpha began removing the many claws, pouches and other small bits other than its pelt, leaving them upon the ground the Alpha had its pack attach the straps together and sling it over the broad back of their leader.

The grove was still its closest connection to its goal the grove had a place where no territory had been created, the foothill looking over the grove, it was too near the intruders and therefore no Grimm could settle there.

But it was different from the others, it could hide there and attempt to heal while building its pack to a large enough size to overwhelm the forces it had lost to previously.

No more consideration for the many-legs or the armored intruders, just resting and observing the moon as the sunrises pass, perhaps too tranquil actually. It would have to think on this, incidentally, the perfect time was coming up shortly.

Settling into an awkward rhythm of running with only one front leg the Alpha made its way toward the stony outcropping of the foothills overlooking the town via the roundabout route.

Arriving several hours later the Alpha had its pack begin to cut into the stone beneath them, intent on creating a burrow with which it might rest in safety.

Patrolling the incredibly small borders of the new territory the Alpha felt tired in a way it had never felt before, not just as though its muscles were tired but that its mind was becoming foggy and its body was slowing in response time.

Sending some of its pack to carefully patrol the borders in its stead the Alpha moved to the relatively complete burrow before settling into a shallow room that had been carved out already, laying its great head upon the stone and leaving a final set of orders for its pack.

Hide from the intruders, do not attack them, do not harm them, hide before all else, only attack Grimm who happen upon this place. Its fogged mind could not summon forth the will to consider other orders for its pack and disappeared into the oblivion of sleep.

Twenty Full Moons later

The day could not have looked brighter to Catrine, the sun shone bright, summer was in full swing and the aches were but painful distant memories.

After that day of nightmares over a year ago Catrine had retired from her hunter group leaving Anton and Henrik to return to Vale and return to the never ending fight against the Grimm, she had been broken physically and, if her nightmares were any indication, perhaps mentally as well.

They had recovered Kennet's body in the forest the next day, all belongings taken as if he had been stolen from though aside from a few basic injuries he seemed as if he had died of internal damage. His body was almost undamaged aside from these wounds despite what she had seen come from Beowulves, no parts missing, body ripped asunder or anything that would show the normal disrespect the Grimm hold for human dead.

Kennet had been buried in the cemetery of the village and with him Catrine had buried a part of herself, they had trained and worked together for years and she knew his family personally, the eldest of four children he was the reason their family still held together, what with his mother having contracted a disease leaving her barely able to help her children, let alone get them ready to head out into the world.

She knew she was being a coward but she couldn't face Kennet's family nor even her peers back at Vale so here she stayed, her training allowing her to defend the hunting parties despite her arm never fully recovering.

If she had recovered faster she might have been able to be convinced to return with the others but she was useless compared to the others of her team now, her Aura could not make up for the deficit of her inability to wield her preferred weapon with the precision she once had.

So here she was following the latest scout party to check on the borders of the town, ever since her team had scared off the Alpha Beowulf of the area the Grimm attacks had returned to normal and Deathstalkers were more common than they had any right to be.

Deaths had been kept to a minimum due to her presence, despite her own self-depreciation she still had her semblance which was startling effective against Grimm, though she had to get much closer than before due to her injury.

The scouting party usually did the rounds along the base of the cliff to make sure no Grimm were weakening the foundation and then along the north and south walls, for some reason the party had never checked towards the small crags of the foothills which bordered the east walls and also the only entrance, they acted as a natural barrier and climbing them was too much effort.

The few times the climbs had been made to confirm no Nevermore nests had found nothing, though none had been done in quite a while. Catrine knew that a Nevermore nest could be a death sentence to a town like this and so suggested the party make their way to the crags and investigate.

The hike up was steep and Catrine was rapidly regretting imposing her will upon the party until they reached the top and came across what appeared to be some sort of gladiator arena straight from her nightmare, the ground was soaked in evaporating Grimm blood and uncountable claw marks rent the stone surface.

In the center were dozens of Beowulves ripping a medium sized Deathstalker apart as another larger one was skewering and crushing the Grimm unfortunate enough to be matched against it.

Partially over the edge of the small cliff lay the dissolving body of a large Deathstalker, its blood seeping into the slightly concave surface of the stone ridge, explaining why the blood had managed to maintain a liquid state despite Grimm blood normally turning to smoke rather rapidly after leaving the body.

She had seen Grimm fight before but this blood could only be here from constant death, never letting it fully dissolve, only creating a black miasma that floated over the surface of the ground.

Despite the sun overhead Catrine could feel the chill evil of the ground around her, this was a killing floor, but why were they fighting here? Looking around Catrine saw a carved hole in the ground which every few seconds emitted an unhealthy looking Beowulf which seemed to become healthier once it reached the black miasma.

Motioning to the other members of the party Catrine crouched just behind a rock, "I'm going to go check the cave where the Beowulves are coming from, stay here and don't attract either sides attention, I'm not sure about our chances against either side, let alone both of them at once."

Pulling out her bow she silently leapt to one of the spires of stone using Aura to augment her injured arm to hold her weight. Looking carefully at each of the fighting Grimm and waiting for the next new Beowulf to come from the cave Catrine considered what she would fine inside.

Perhaps she might come across the Alpha Beowulf she had injured and had injured her in turn, but it didn't matter, whatever it was would just have to die if she could manage it, this was far too close to the village to allow it to continue.

Detaching from her hold she fell down and landed just above the top lip of the cave before running inside to find out what she could.

Immediately Catrine felt her mistake in the form of the reverberating growls of dozens of Beowulves around her, then, as suddenly as the growls had started they ceased, the Beowulves she could see from the light of her aura closed their mouths and suddenly separated going away and only leaving two behind whom sat at the entrance to another part of the cave.

Pulling her bow and aiming it at the creatures which should have attacked her she started to walk about the cave, only to realize that it ended rather suddenly in a large auditorium like area where she saw the burning eyes of dozens of the residents of the cave which shut shortly afterwards, winking out of existence.

Startled but now determined to figure out what was going one she backtracked to the only other branch off from the main path she had seen, the one guarded by the two Beowulves.

Walking up to it she very warily stepped forward causing the two guards to move towards each other blocking passage but still not attacking. Feeling lucky Catrine decided to push it and forced her way past them, the Grimm offering only basic physical resistance to her efforts, easily letting her through.

"This is weird…" She whispered to herself before she noticed that the room she was in was darker than before, the light of her soul did not reveal the edges of the room even though judging by the sound of her voice the room couldn't be too large, perhaps fifteen seconds to walk from side to the other at most.

Something nudged her leg and she saw one of the unhealthy Grimm walk by her, coming from the center it seemed, evidently her destination.

Moving forward she noticed the darkness became thicker and she stopped being able to see her own feet even with the light radiating all around her, the muffling effect blocking even such a close light.

Her body kept disappearing more and more until she could barely see a hands width in front of her eyes, the foreboding effect of the room multiplied many fold when she realized her sense of hearing was becoming muffled as well.

Sensing the end of the cave about to arrive Catrine stopped, seeing something different in the darkness she leaned forward ever so slightly.

Bone White. Recoiling, Catrine realized what was right there, an Alpha Bewoulf! Calming herself slightly she leaned forward again to inspect the mask, after all the Alpha Beowulf she had fought had a couple unique damages to its mask, most notably a teardrop shaped missing chunk from the mask right below an eye.

The mask did have the teardrop, along with some other damages but they were mostly slash marks, nothing she hadn't seen on any Beowulf who had lived for any decent amount of time.

The eyes of the Grimm didn't burn in their sockets, they were empty, it may have been sleeping or was in a coma of some sort, this… could be important, incredibly so, she had to contact Vale, she would have her vengeance on this creature by using it, using it until researchers no longer cared and she could put an arrow through its chest, ending it once and for all, no, she wasn't thinking straight, she needed to get away and talk to someone, she needed to be impartial, this was too important.

Exiting the cave in a daze Catrina didn't notice the Deathstalker until it was practically on top of her, swinging her bow up to block what would likely devastate her Aura she noticed the Beowulves that were actively trying to kill it slammed into the tail, causing it to smash into the ground where it was promptly chewed and clawed off leaving the large Grimm down its primary weapon.

Turning to the place where they had come from she retreated making sure they weren't following her to the rest of the party. Sliding over the ridge she looked at the leader of the small expedition, "We need to contact Vale, that cave holds something the researchers in Vale will salivate over."

Nodding his acceptance the party turned and ran from the blood soaked, Grimm miasma infused place, glad to be as far from there as they could be.


	8. Chapter 8

~I do not own RWBY

Chapter 8

32 Years since Phase Village Discovery

"I just believe that we should re-enable external Grimm access, studying it in a static state has garnered nothing new in years, we need to implement change!" an older voice rang out in a shiny metal and glass room.

"Catrine, we are not going to do that, you know this, the danger is too great, there is a reason we sealed off external access all those years ago, how many Hunters and Huntresses do you think would need to be deployed here constantly? Their services are needed elsewhere, you, of all people, should understand this." Standing outside the room and watching the ongoing tests was an older man in a white lab coat.

"Besides, what would we do should it awake? It dying is unacceptable, we have far from learned all the secrets we can from it. Even if, and I am humoring you here, we will be able to learn more from it should it wake the risks are unacceptable, observing live Grimm is incredibly difficult, but possible, this isn't."

Having said his piece the man turned around and exited through a door to a hallway beyond, the door slid closed after him and the woman inside was left to consider his words.

Suddenly slamming her fist onto the table Catrine fumed, it had been years, she had followed a very different path in life after discovering the comatose Alpha, and the creature presented too many possibilities, not to mention she had to be there when it all ended.

Time was becoming more and more her enemy, she wasn't exactly a spring chicken anymore and she was beginning to wonder on it waking on its own during her lifetime, certainly the scientists here were making sure to not mess with it in any way if they could help it.

Chances becoming more slim by the day Catrine was becoming desperate, while her own skills had stagnated since she had last trained all those years ago the Alpha had continued to grow, adding bone armor ever so slowly and tiny height changes.

The academics of the facility also did not add significant security to the area, choosing instead to keep only a single team of hunters on site and never giving them access to anything vital inside, presumably their paranoia about accidentally waking the beast.

Recent breakthroughs with the new energy source of Dust have caused confidence to surge across every permanent human settlement, even the powerful villages turned cities, such as Vale have become bastions against the Grimm, unfortunately these surges in confidence have slowed the development speed of anything not Dust related, making it all the more unlikely that they would take a risk and wake the Alpha.

Perhaps in a few more decades once Dust research lightened up they would consider doing something risky but for now they were content, the anti-thesis of science.

Looking over at the large blast door on the far side of the room Catrine sighed, her goal was right there but her need to further humanity hindered her, though time was changing her opinion ever so slowly.

Walking over to the Dust infused glass viewing area she looked down on the resting area of the pack of the Alpha, they were sleeping as they had been ever since the initial expedition team hunters had fought off the attacking Grimm, even they were becoming more dangerous looking, sharpened spines, more bone plates, slightly larger, they were ever so slightly superior to a standard Beowulf.

She looked and all she saw was a tragedy waiting to occur again, the researchers didn't see what she did, but she was just one former huntress, what could she do? Looking to another window with a metal screen shut over it, just on the other side of that one was her tormentor, stepping up to it she keyed in the code to lift the screen leaving only the Dust infused glass to separate her from the near pitch black smog on the other side.

The smog was, as far as they could tell, appeared to be made up from the essence of the Alpha itself, should any of its pack die the essence would form into a new Beowulf, weak and new to the world.

The new Beowulves would be aggressive to any humans in the area like a normal Beowulf for a short time until they would suddenly become pacified for no evident reason, assumptions of it having to do with the Alpha brought forth isolation tests for new Beowulves which yielded to no changes from normal.

"We may be able to get more from you but my time is running out you bastard…" muttering to herself Catrine's fingers tapped the glass in a rapid manner, her nervous habit showing itself.

"I almost hope Vale turns down my next proposition…" Closing the shutter she turns and walks to the exit, "Can't very well justify my expenses otherwise, not like I've saved this money for much other purpose…"

Turning off the lights Catrine shut the door behind her, the room settling into darkness, the slightest trace of a fog upon the ground the only remaining hint the stark white and silver room had of its purpose.

Outside the Phase Village Facility

"We haven't even… been here a week, this is crazy…" A tired voice came from a short blonde boy who sat on the now decaying body of a medium sized Deathstalker, a pair of short axes resting next to him

"This is considerably more Grimm than should be in any one place, Professor, I understand that this was supposed to be a combat based mission but why are there so many attracted to this place?" A black haired girl dropping her long rifle before changing it to a halberd.

Dropping from one of the very few remaining spires of stone the area had left intact a bespectacled older gentleman holding a Lucerne looked around before speaking to the girl, "This area since its discovery has been a hot zone, I won't tell you the reason as even I don't officially know the reason why, nor should you know unofficially or otherwise."

Another boy wielding a series of spiked balls stepped off the shredded corpse of a smaller Deathstalker before addressing their professor, "I understand it is likely something to do with the facility we and team TNSN are guarding but a never-ending attack, no matter how slow is quite dangerous, should there not be further backup? What if these attacks were to halt for only a few days, the backed up forces would overwhelm us easily."

At that moment another Deathstalker climbed over the ridge and struck out at the resting axe wielder, at the last moment a glowing energy formed over the tail and the strike which landed on the boy which knocked him over seemed to have no negative effect.

"Ow, please put in more effort Rana, that one actually hurt a bit." Turning around after recovering he gestured toward a blonde girl wielding a serrated short sword who was resting on a rock nearby, the boy then threw one of his axes after applying a glow to it.

Upon striking the Deathstalker the axe embedded itself and the boy disappeared before reappearing on the Deathstalker with both axes in hand yet again, "Huh, that didn't go in very deep, Rao, shred it!"

Flinging one of the small spiked balls at the beleaguered Grimm the boy began making motions with his hands which the ball mirrored, rapidly shredding at the few vulnerable locations on the body of the large creature.

Leaping over the creature the black haired girl slammed her long weapon into the tail separating it from the rest of the body before slashing downward into the mask, leaving a large gash which promptly has two axes jammed into it.

For a moment the Deathstalker goes rigid, pincers set to strike until it falls to the ground, legs no longer capable of supporting it, carapace slowly dissolving away.

"Hard at work I see, anything unusual out here today?" The voice of Catrine spoke out to the group as she exited the building they had been tasked to guard over the next week.

Looking over at the woman the professor smiled lightly, "It's been too long since we have met in person Catrine, how have you been?"

"In case you forgot professor its doctor now, I have something I would like to speak to you about. Alone, please." Turning around and stalking away the students began whispering to eachother.

"Who do you suppose she is Syrene?" the blond boy asked while looking at the black haired girl. Looking right back at him he immediately regretted his question as the girl got that holier than thou look on her face.

"That, would be doctor Annalise, considered one of the foremost expert on Grimm biology, her papers on the interactions between Grimm have single handedly turned the research community on its head, I'm reasonably sure that the only reason…"

Putting his hands up in surrender the boy attempted to shut her down, "Okay, I get it, she's a hotshot doctor, seems pretty straightforward, why do you think she knows the professor though?"

This time Rana stepped in, getting up from the rock she was resting on with a groan, "Why should we know, maybe they were old flames? Who knows and I really don't care, get back to work, a Deathstalker could pop up any moment now."

As she finished her input a spiked insect leg reached over the ridge and began lifting another large Grimm up behind it, "And there we go, this is ridiculous, is this some sort of stamina training? My break time next by the way."

Looking at his students the professor determined they would be fine for a few minutes as long as he didn't go too far, walking after the doctor he wondered if this was related to the favor she had mentioned which caused him to come down here instead of another professor, bad memories still lingered of this village.

Turning the corner he found the doctor waiting tapping her heels impatiently, "I take it my request for a favor did not fall on deaf ears then? Honestly Anton, I have been waiting months, could you not have taken a few days from your time a little bit sooner?"

Lightly chuckling the professor leaned against the wall, "In case you forgot doctor, its professor now, and no, I have not had the time to just disappear for a few weeks, especially given your dubious stipulation of making sure nobody knew I was coming to visit you, I do have a family now, first grandson on the way."

For a moment a glimmer in her eye showed and he wondered if he had said something to upset her, just as quickly her face returned to the mask it was previously, "Congratulation, if he grows up to be anything like his grandfather he will no doubt be a great warrior, the reason I requested your help is… I hesitate to bring this up with you but I think you should know."

Feeling the atmosphere become ominous the professor checked back around the corner to confirm his students were holding their own, upon confirming this he looked back at his former teammate. "I'm already here, might as well get it over with Catrine."

Shaking her head she gestured towards the building, "In there… is the one that killed Kennet, that Alpha we fought those many years ago, I came across him a little more than a year after I stayed behind in the village, he was comatose as far as I can tell, in a move I have come to regret I informed Vale so that we might take advantage of it before it would eventually wake. I would then kill it."

His mouth open in disbelief Anton looked at the building he had been guarding, "It's in there? Are you sure it's the same one?"

Nodding her head Catrine pulled the bow she had over her shoulders, "I am no longer combat worthy, especially against what could be considered an aged Grimm, certainly no ancient Grimm but, definitely enough to take down an old non-combat active huntress, I need someone capable of taking down a strong Grimm with a full pack behind it."

Closing his eyes he put his back against the wall, considering his options, he could assist her in killing this Alpha, though this would likely make him the enemy of the scientific community, even if he would likely never see public backlash due to the secretive nature of the facility.

"Fine, I'm in, I am not, however, volunteering my team, they will be kept out of this, I want no part of this blowing back onto them." Giving his assent the professor sighed heavily.

Her face gaining a slight smile the doctor gestured toward a door into the facility, "No time like the present, the sooner the better, besides, either way I'm going to be implicated due to my access codes being required, no way to get rid of that."

Hefting his halberd the man turned to walk back to his students, "I'll be back in a moment, they need to know the bare minimum in case something goes wrong, prepare yourself and I'll be ready shortly, this will be a strange day indeed."

Turning back toward the facility and keying in her code the smile on her faced changed slowly, the calm barely visible one becoming a large grin before twisting to a maniacal smile, "This is how it should be, vengeance no matter what… Welcome back Anton, only Schnee is left, but perhaps it's better this way, he would have blabbed after all…"

The day was looking up, perhaps by the time the day was over she could consider getting on with her life, the curse Kennet had left her with when he died would finally lose its hold when she completed this last task, yes today was a good day.


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry for how light duty the last chapter was, I caught a devious little virus, I decided to make this chapter a little more intense to make up for that.**

 **In case you hadn't picked this up by now the timeline is started before the mainstream discovery and implementation of Dust, hence why the use of bows and the like.**

 **YesBoss21: The presence is unknown, it could any number of things.**

 **SenselessGrinder: I always enjoy a story from the bad guys perspective, I intend on making other characters, specifically humans and Faunas make reoccurring appearances but in the end they will remain secondary.**

~I do not own RWBY

Chapter 9

The world around it was black, yet it could make out shapes moving about, the fog shifting and creating an impossible silhouette against an equally dark background, a many-legs striking a killing blow, a pack member joined by its fellows as they run from or toward something.

Images which mean nothing to the Alpha flickered by repeatedly, at first they were of things it had seen or known at some point, the winged ones, tusked one, various tiny ones, many-legs, the many species of Grimm it had seen before.

Then something blocked its vision, a silhouette so large it could not discern it until it moved far enough away, similar to the winged ones but with a more robust body, the creature was so large as to be ridiculous, slowly turning it returned, its jaw unhinging, a distressing light emanating from inside its maw, the only light it had seen since it had come here.

Then light. And pain. Everything hurt, why did it hurt so badly, it felt like its body was being torn up, it felt the presence coming back, the comfort of its return immediately squelched as with its return came experience.

Time, time had passed, so much of it, too much of it, falling to the ground the Alpha howled out wishing it to stop, this was too much its mind could not take it, the experience of thousands of pack members living and dying for hundreds of moons.

Even as it howled in agony a very physical pain found its way into its side, a spike of some sort, slamming deeply before being pulled up to inflict maximum damage.

Its eyes flickering open the Alpha beheld only the black fog it had been stuck in for so long, was this just a new stage of torture? The fog then parted as a glowing arrow flew straight towards its face.

For just a moment the arrow was surrounded by the maw of the great beast from its sleep before the Alpha realized this was a very real threat to its existence.

Snapping its neck to the side the arrow flew by before embedding itself into the wall behind it, almost immediately the arrow exploded, just like the arrow of the bow wielder from the intruders group it had fought before, in fact, it was exactly like that.

The fog parting the Alpha saw the one who fired the arrow and was somewhat confused, it resembled the intruder it had seen before but it was… different, it appeared to be… It had no comparison, weaker?

The spike in its side pulled out after it met resistance in the form of a bone plate, another individual was revealed, this time it was a large intruder who wielded a weapon that was also similar to the one that the shiny stone armored one had worn, in fact, the only difference were a couple of inlaid colors and the head of the weapon seemed a different color.

Was this the shiny armored one without its armor on? He did look stronger than most intruders but the Alpha felt like he was both much stronger than before yet much weaker as well, regardless the confusion was halted as the presence showed it the pack.

The pack had grown, sitting at two hundred thirty six members it was larger than any pack it had ever observed, was it truly still its pack? They were rousing themselves at the behest of the presence and were drowsily moving towards the exit to their cave.

Looking around the Alpha noticed the fog was moving towards where the arrow had exploded, it could hear air movement from the other side, the breach led to another area and possibly its escape.

Lashing out with its long claws the Alpha slammed the polearm wielder into the wall before running through the gaping hole left behind by the explosion.

Almost immediately it was blinded by the brightness of the room it had escaped to, all around it was shiny stone so bright it almost looked like water.

Dazed and confused it slowed while looking for how to escape again, seeing only small passages it could only barely squeeze down branching from the main room it was in right now it decided it would need to break its way out from there.

A spike jammed itself into the same side it had previously, the polearm intruder having recovered very quickly, the wound only becoming larger and larger as the attack continued.

Swinging back at the nuisance its claw met an impenetrable glowing barrier, the same as the intruder had used before, confirming this was the same one as before.

Several arrows clattered off its mask thankfully none of them exploding as the bow intruder stepped through the destroyed opening, "I can only fire at most two more of those Anton, and I can't afford to miss or it could use the destruction to escape further, are you sure we can't use your students?"

The other intruder made a facial expression which it recalled meant anger, "No Catrine, they are not getting involved in this if I can help it, we finish this here by ourselves, this is our generations problem, not theirs!"

Kicking off the barrier the intruder had surrounded itself with the Alpha attempted to get distance only to be thwarted as the exact same barrier appeared behind it, causing its momentum to instantly end before crashing to the ground.

"I see you weren't lying when you said you hadn't kept your training up but I have slacked only slightly in recent years, make sure the pack doesn't get through to us, I suspect that metal blast door will only hold up so long against a desperate pack of old Beowulves."

Turning back, the bow wielder ran back into the breach leaving only the Alpha and the large intruder in the glare filled room, the light of the energy from the intruder only making everything worse.

Slashing at the ceiling the Alpha attempted to breach it only to find the material surprisingly resilient only cutting into it slightly and not even enough to let the light from the outside in.

Shifting its body back to facing the awaiting intruder, the black miasma filtering in from the breach, the Alpha lowered its head slightly opening its mouth and emanating a low growl, the fog slowly rolling off its body and out of its mouth.

The intruder stood there its polearm set in front as if to block the next strike, the light of its barrier shining from behind it casting a halo effect and silhouetting its body, "A regret from my past beast, not my only regret, but a sign of my greatest failure, tonight I will take back my pride so I can look at my grandchild's face knowing I have won and this cruel world has lost. Pass silently into the night."

Slamming its weapon to the ground the intruder then formed a barrier over its stuck weapon, trapping it into the ground and heaving with all its might against its own barrier.

Confused but unwilling to let an opportunity like this pass it by the Alpha sprung forward its claws bracing it in case a barrier were to suddenly appear in front of it, one just in front of it defensively, the other reaching out to pierce its target.

The next moment happened almost instantly, the intruder's barrier over its own weapon disappeared and its weapon blurred upwards faster than the Alpha could track smashing into its chest, the ensuing damage causing the Alpha to curl inward, claw scraping the natural resistance all the intruders seemed to have around them.

The wound was deep, it could feel the blood and miasma pouring forth from the gaping hole, the wound wasn't mortal, Grimm tended to survive rather extreme injuries after living a few dozen moons.

Collapsing onto the ground the Alpha could feel the Shadows beckoning, requesting its return to the soft embrace, eyes slowly closing the Alpha began to slip as it heard the boots of the intruder step up.

Shifting its head ever so slightly the Alpha looked up at the harbinger of its doom, the tall intruder settling the spike of its weapon over the back side of its mask, right above its spine.

"I do not know why it matters to me but you're probably old enough at this point to understand something of what I say, why did you kill him? His family fell apart without him, his mother killed herself, little Janine stopped talking and no one could figure out what was wrong until the sickness she contracted became too much. She passed away within the next day." The intruder's weapon began shaking slightly and the Alpha saw something it hadn't seen before. Tears.

It had heard of them before but it didn't understand what they were until it saw them coming from the intruders eyes. For a brief moment the Alpha felt something stir, a feeling it remembered from when it had killed the intruder in those woods.

The pain that had crippled it, tortured the Alpha until the presence had stepped in. The more it thought about it the more it remembered and the more it felt, the feeling slowly crippling it, its body which was still tensed for combat quivering and relaxing.

"That family was destroyed by your actions, rent asunder by the unfeeling hands of fate that you were wielded by, I tried to help them but they became hunters and huntresses, each and every remaining one of them, threw themselves into their work. One of them lives to this day. One."

Tears spilled down its face and the Alpha felt something leaking from its own eyes, the intruder made a startled exclamation when it saw this, "What is this?"

The presence suddenly slammed itself into his mind and the odd feeling disappeared causing the Alpha to see its only chance at life, the distracted intruder.

"A strange world we live in, strange and cruel, my forgiveness I beg for Kennet." Raising its weapon the intruder closed its eyes for just a moment, sealing its fate.

Pointing its claws inward the Alpha stabbed upward at the base of its mouth for a killing blow, the strike landing just underneath the chin encountering the natural resistance of the intruders and glancing off, destroying the last chance the Alpha had.

Rolling backward the Alpha forced its crippled body to move following up its attack that managed to knock the intruder for a loop, slamming its hands down again and again in its best effort to end the threat to its life.

Stumbling backwards the intruder held its mouth in its mouth in its hand before being knocked to the ground by the ensuing flurry of attacks, "Fine, just like a Grimm I suppose, why would you care anyway."

Putting the barrier up to block all further attacks the intruder groaned as it stood up, "And that shall be my memory of you, die."

Swinging its weapon through the barrier which disappeared just in time to let it through the spike contacted the right hand of the Alpha and ripped down, bisecting the hand.

Pulling back its hand which now held itself together by tatters a light whimper left the mouth of the Alpha for only a moment before it felt the life of a dozen of its pack snuffed out, the presence connecting its mind to that of its underlings.

The pack had ripped open a shiny stone barrier and had immediately encountered the bow intruder who had fired a glowing arrow destroying the remains of the barrier and obliterating the front runners.

The ones who were most eager to rejoin their leader, the vanguards of their leaders return, the Alpha's eyes began to haze over for a very different reason from moments before, it knew many of these pack members had never truly known their leader, existed only to wait.

Stretching its jaws to their limits the Alpha roared forcefully willing the black miasma to stay within its body that it might fight for even a moment longer.

"Curious eyes you have there, perhaps I'll tell Catrine, she did say she wanted to at least get some information from you while you were active." Feeling its jaw crack as it opened far beyond what is physically possible for it the miasma flowed into the new damage, reinforcing it.

The pack was overwhelming the bow wielder rapidly but they would not be here fast enough to save the Alpha if it didn't do something to save itself.

Having made the intruder return to a defensive stance in its wariness the Alpha looked at the ceiling it had previously damaged, it needed that open, enough that it could escape, but the bow wielder was not here and the polearm wielder was too precise to accidentally damage the ceiling from a missed blow.

It would need to rely on its own strength, tensing its muscles it knew it would only get one chance at this before the intruder would understand what it was doing and never let it try again.

Putting its arms beneath it the Alpha leapt up with the spines at the top of its back crashing into the ceiling, immediately nearly crippling pain ran through its body as its spine protested being used as a battering ram.

It felt the ceiling give before its assault, immediately it clawed its way out and roared to the moon overhead its victory, the sound echoing out from the crag into the forest beyond, it was free, allowed to continue its purpose.

Two Minutes Earlier Outside the Facility

"I know the professor said we would be fine without him for an hour but this is ridiculous, why are they coming faster and faster? It was only a few every hour but we've seen twelve in the last fifteen minutes alone!" The blonde girl, Rana, remarked.

"It'd be fine if team TNSN were here but they have a few more hours of rest, all we can do is hold on until the professor arrives, Rana, no more fighting, rest and only use your semblance for now, and we can't afford to lose Aura to anything right now, especially a direct blow." The dark haired girl, Syrene yelled out while flipping over a Deathstalker tail and cutting it off.

The team had been keeping their Aura regeneration closely tied to the incoming assault, the professor had been right about this mission sharpening their combat efficiency, the trial by fire that had been this last week had forced their team to come together and their teamwork had solidified to a near saturation point.

"By the way, have you heard the rumbling coming from the facility? That's some ominous stuff, almost sounds like something is going on in there, you think that's why the lady doctor needed his help? Or is there some… extracurricular activity going on in there?" The blonde boy wiggled his eyebrows repeatedly in a manner that seemed to infuriate the females of the group.

"You disgust me sometimes. Just focus on killing the Grimm." Syrene's lip curled upward in disgust as she turned toward the boy for a moment.

As the team bantered amidst their deadly surroundings a rending sound disturbed the sounds of battle they created, the facility roof had been torn open and something was coming out.

"What the heck, I knew it! They totally had something in there, is that an Alpha Beowulf? Dang he's a big one." The twin axe wielding boy settled his weapons on his shoulders after having finished his Deathstalker, looking up at the Alpha pulling itself from the roof.

"He appears to already be wounded, it must have been fighting the Professor, Rana, fire that flare, we're gonna need TNSN, hopefully they can get here soon, everyone, pierce now!" Syrene showed off her leadership skills as she set up a team attack against the escaped Alpha.

Just as the team began moving for the attack the back end of the facility exploded in white light, before Beowulves began streaming out en masse.

"What? Okay, belay that, Rao with me, Rana make sure the Alpha doesn't do anything, Canus, keep the Deathstalkers off our back, get on it everyone, this night is gonna get a lot worse before it gets better!" The halberd wielder confirmed her team was moving towards their objectives before running at the stream of Beowulves.

Looking over at Rana she saw the Alpha wasn't putting significant effort into destroying her, in fact the only thing it seemed to be doing was trying to escape, ineffectually though it may be, Rana should be fine, it probably couldn't even hurt her due to her semblance.

Turning back to the edge over the hole Syrene looked down, below her was a hole into a cave that was moving, no, it only looked like it because of the immense number of Beowulves moving down there.

Attempting to find a place where her and Rao might stem the tide Rao pointed toward the front of the pack, "That is the doctor, she has been… captured, it seems."

Sure enough at the head of the pack was the doctor laying across the back of a Beowulf which was running around the facility, presumably looking for the fastest way to get to its Alpha.

"If those Grimm get to Rana she'll be overwhelmed immediately, take em out Rao, I'll stop the front runners." The stoic boy then pulled out a pouch filled with differently colored spiked balls tossing every single one into the crowd of Beowulves below, a slight grin gracing his face as he did so, "None for you boss…"

Hearing the explosions behind her from Rao, Syrene knew she could rely on him to keep her from getting overwhelmed, "Doctor! I'm here to help!" Landing right in front of the fore most member of the pack she grabbed a small black rectangular metal box from her belt which she cracked in half before throwing above the heads of the Beowulves.

Running around the area underneath the thrown container the Beowulves did their best to avoid whatever the girl was attempting to do.

Falling out from the container was white Dust which dispersed through the area, "The wind flows as I do." The girl muttered under her breath before leaping forward and fading away into the now dust filled area.

Almost immediately Beowulves started to be slashed in half as though by a large halberd, striking out at the air the creatures attempted to fight back against the unseen assailant which was cutting them down.

One seemed to get it right as it flung its entire body into the air before a loud "Oof" was heard and the Grimm was knocked aside as if getting hit by something moving very fast.

Reappearing for a moment the dazed girl shook her head before realizing the Beowulves had surrounded her again and she was not within the white Dust zone, reaching for the containers on her belt she attempted to reestablish a zone.

Not accepting such, the nearby Grimm knocked the container she held to the ground, before it stood on it, the Grimm began literally burying her beneath them.

Activating her semblance without Dust this time she faded until she was barely visible hoping that they might lighten up on her or think she had disappeared.

Unfortunately for her the Beowulves were not confused by this and continued standing on the invisible but still very physical huntress.

The rest of the pack began moving on from the pile of Grimm laying atop the stuck huntress, moving toward their leader.

Rana had not been having a good time, the Alpha was injured, yes, but he was also bigger than normal, covered in more bone plates and certainly looked overall more dangerous.

"How is he still moving so fast? I'd have been dead ten times over by now if it weren't for my semblance." Putting her glow over the incoming claws again she was knocked back a distance by the warm cushion of her semblance.

The Alpha unfortunately was rapidly realizing the best way to deal with the girl was to just not, therefore it had almost completely stopped attacking and was only bothering to block her attacks.

From the hole in the roof she saw the professor making his way through the crashed sharp debris, he would reinforce her in just a moment but the Alpha would be long gone if she didn't do anything, problem was, Syrene had sent her here on the assumption that the Alpha would do what any other Grimm would do, fight to the death.

Stabbing her sword at the retreating back of the Alpha she was again forced to mute an incoming retaliatory swipe from the creature.

"Gah, come on you oaf, I've been fighting all day long, the least you could do is give me the time of day!" Yelling in frustration the girl stabbed her weapon into the roof to halt her momentum.

A boot landed next to the beleaguered girl and she looked up to see her professor standing next to her, "No time for rest miss Cranston, , we need to acquire your teammates, sad as I am to admit this, yours and my semblance's are not of great use by themselves against this beast."

Looking over to Rao where he was manipulating the spiked balls to wreak havoc among the Beowulf population Anton spoke to Rana, "Please go acquire your partner miss Cranston, I shall be requiring his assistance shortly, I shall attempt to keep the Alpha occupied."

Nodding her acceptance Rana got up and began running to get Rao the message. The professor however put his hand out and the barrier appeared in front of the escaping Alpha, stopping it painfully again.

Turning and roaring the Alpha smashed the roof it was standing on, collapsing it underneath it, swallowing it up and making the professor look nervously at his feet.

Moments later the girl Rana found her tendency to reflexively use her semblance paying off as five large sharp claws burst from the roof beneath her and jamming themselves into her abdomen.

Not quite able to react in time though the girl was thrown through the air with the air knocked from her lungs before landing limply on the dangerous roof, gasping for air.

Rao thankfully did notice this and redirected the spike balls from the horde to go through the holes in the roof and shred whatever lay beneath.

This turned out to be the wrong decision as only moments after he stopped his slaughter of the Grimm the creatures leapt onto the roof and swarmed him, his reflexes and Aura improved strength the only reason he managed to leap to safety.

Rana was summarily swarmed and smothered, held to the roof and pinned before they began going after the Professor, evidently either not caring for Rao or deciding attacking him would result in too many casualties.

The professor saw the incoming horde as he lifted his head from looking down the collapsed roof the Alpha had created moments ago, "Oh, this… is not good." Thinking rapidly on how to extricate himself and his team from the situation the professor could come up with no ideas other than to hope the isolated team members could survive until TNSN came.

Cursing his self-preserving semblance Anton ran straight at the horde yelling a battle cry that had not left his lips in decades, not since he had been on the four team joint hunt of an elder Grimm. That was a day to be remembered, not one death despite the ease with which the creature and its minions fought them.

The horde parted around him but it was not entirely due to his cleaving attacks, they were avoiding him, staying out of his way, using their impressive speed to get around him and move past toward their target, whatever it may be.

A voice from overhead yelled out in triumph as a bright red haired older man landed on the roof causing the whole thing to shudder before turning to goop and collapsing.

Leaping to the ground before everything went wrong Anton looked at the new arrival, "Chris, so good of you to join us, could you keep the property damage to a minimum please? A professor is supposed to be a shining example, you could do with a little more shine."

Landing next to him the smiling redhead observed his handiwork, "Pah, it worked did it not? Besides your poor team had been overwhelmed, what is a man to do? Turn the situation on its head I believe!"

Sighing at the gung ho man Anton couldn't help but agree, the situation did need turning around, desperately and while the removal of the roof of the facility would benefit neither party over the course of the fight it did throw a wrench in the current fight which was vastly in the favor of the Grimm.

"Chris, could you please recover my team, this site is lost, especially with your… intervention, we can fight them but it should be with both teams and at a site of our choosing, perhaps in the natural valley between the crags and the village?"

Looking at the large piles of Grimm holding down the two huntresses Chris cocked his head to the side, "Ya know, not that I'm complaining or nothin but… why ain't they dead, their Aura wouldn't keep a pile o' Grimm from rippin em apart for very long. No, wait don't answer that, time, essence, all that jazz."

Moving toward the entrance to the valley Anton smashed a few boulders down to capitalize on the already natural chokepoint, "I will need to ponder on all this if this team gets out alive, accommodations first of all, they deserve it for this mission, questions second of all. I hope I don't get court martialed for this…"

The redheaded professor pulled out a long hammer that was infused with Dust, "Ah, Jenny, why'd they have to give you those ugly tattoes? All these new gen Dust techs are making everyone all antsy to use it, you and me made it just fine without fancy Dust infusion or crazy transforming weapons the students are all getting now, simpler times…"

Landing next to Rana who had fought off the pile of Grimm due to the ceiling she was on collapsing he picked her up, even as she protested and ran towards the wall before it turned liquid and fell apart to his shoulder check.

The girl yelling in his ear about how disgusting all this goop was only slightly distracted him as he crashed into the pile atop Syrene scattering them every which way.

"Come on girlie, no time like the present." Putting his hand out to the girl he braced himself. Realizing his intentions she grabbed his hand before screaming slightly as she found she did not know his intentions.

Thrown unceremoniously atop the already protesting body of her teammate her face burned red with the indignity of the situation.

"Alrighty, two down and I think I saw little mister Rao getting out fine, which leave sir axes, actually, I don't think anything can catch that boy, he'll be fine, letsago then!" after pondering briefly on the state of the rest of the team he was sent to rescue Chris turned and began running back to the entrance to the crags.

Surveying the damage done to the battlefield from a ridge above the facility the Alpha knew now was the time to get its pack out, the intruders appeared to be setting up a defense at the exit from the crags toward the grove village.

Luckily the Alpha had no intention of continuing this fight, it needed to heal, again, as it always seemed to need to after any battle of note and its pack needed to be tended to, time had passed, it just did not know how much, for all it knew The Intruder might have passed beyond its reach, it needed information again, luckily the presence had given it much knowledge on the… human, language.

It would learn and it would return for its prey, but in the meantime it needed to get its pack to safety, safety which it would try to find in the north, as it had before so many moons ago.

Slinking down the stone on the far side of the crag the Alpha looked back and howled to the moon leaving its attackers with one last memory of it, tonight's moon was truly beautiful.


	10. Chapter 10

**The arrival at Vale! Having come from the south, approximately in the area between Vacuo and Vale the little Beowulf who could has made it no small distance to get here.**

 **Thanks for all the appreciation! I plan on making this a weekday thing, no promises on every day, especially Friday but Monday through Thursday are going to be getting stuff happening regardless, did you know writing is a great de-stresser?**

 **Yesboss21: Our Alpha will have a name but I decided getting a number specification from the lab was... well, it could be introduced a little better at least, I wanted its name to at least come from something, nevertheless it will be getting a name within the next few chapter.**

 **TheAwsomest5: No, You are, but thanks, makes my day!**

 **Reaver17: I always love a good think tank on silly what ifs for stories, also, yes, write all the stories on the Grimm, maybe then the Grimm character tag will be implemented, or, even better, specific Grimm!**

~I do not own RWBY

Chapter 10

Crashing its way through the forest the Alpha put as much space as it could from the facility it had barely escaped, it was tired, wounded and it felt that unfilled feeling again, perhaps it should go find some Grimm to kill…

Diverting only slightly it ran into a few tiny Grimm, slicing them in half as it passed and siphoning off their essence, re-energizing it for the trek ahead.

It would have to run for quite a while to find an intruder… village. Human village, that it could hide out near and listen to, having finally understood the language it might even try something… devious.

Four Full Moons or around Four Months Later

It had found the village, but this one was huge, it was ridiculously large, its whole pack couldn't run through something like this, but this did fit in with its plan of hiding and learning what the population knew about The Intruder.

It had approached the… City, from the south but almost immediately it saw a target, much like the village it had observed from before this one had a ridge overlooking it, this one was vastly larger though.

The only problem being a large building on top of it, the building looked like it was still being constructed but the central spire was completed and it looked like a huge… this must be what a clock was the Alpha considered, though it was reasonably sure they should be smaller according to what it had understood.

Nevertheless setting up behind that cliff would do, perhaps it could even figure out what that majestic building is for.

Moving its pack away from the city and then circling the Alpha moved gradually towards its target, hiding to avoid patrols of humans that passed by.

Taking the long way as it did the Alpha arrived after a week had passed, none the worse for wear and quite filled with the warmth in its chest at the precision its pack showed when directed.

Surveying the area it wished to claim was hindered by the fact that human hunters and huntresses positively littered the area, patrols were constantly active and only at night did it get the chance to move at anything akin to a pace.

It was with an itching sense that the Alpha came across a series of ruins, they were significant, old, yes, but more importantly they were large and it could see caves attached to them all over the place, not to mention the ruins sat over a seemingly endless valley, yes, this would do.

Walking out onto the ruins the Alpha had its pack spread out to cover the area, it needed to find a singular point that would act as its center of operations, it wasn't sure why it needed this, really it wanted its pack to hide in the many caves scattering the mountainous area but for some reason the presence insisted.

It decided on the most inconvenient to sneak up on location the entire area had, the cave temple at the far end of the pathway of the ruins surrounded by nothing but a long fall.

There it decided to have its pack dig into the cave further to extend the area it could leave for the inactive resting creatures, or at least minimally active pack members, there appeared to be a Nevermore nest situated above them on the cliff.

Settling in at the front of the cave the Alpha made the executive decision to rest, perhaps for a few days, it felt like it needed some dedicated rest, the likes of which it had not had in all the days since its flight.

Sleep came fitfully as it saw images of the jaws of light again, this seemed to be a reoccurring dream, they came in many forms but the jaws were always there, especially at the end, consuming the Alpha and it fell, but not into the comfortable Shadows, but somewhere different.

This dream left it chilled when it awoke, no matter how many of its pack it was surrounded by, the cold piercing its bones and making the miasma in the area no longer feel truly comfortable as it had before.

Morning was coming soon and it could almost feel the world outside the cave waking, preempting the sun, its time was at hand and it needed to beat the humans to their patrols.

Running out of the cave the Alpha began towards the south end of the cliff, the south side of the town seemed of lower security compared to the north or anywhere near the clifftop building.

Taking only five individuals from the pack it was intent on making this a quiet mission, ideally it would make it in and out without anyone being the wiser, especially anyone who might raise an alarm.

Arriving at an external wall the Alpha began its search for a way in by moving east along the wall while its pack moved west along the wall to better use its time.

Eventually it found a guarded indent in the wall, closed off, multiple lights and guards atop the wall, this would not be an easy access point, but it still was one in case it found no others.

The guards there would not be expecting it to sneak by, its brethren tended towards more frontal assaults and this checkpoint was designed with that expectation.

Making its way up to the wall from an angle outside of the view of the guards the Alpha sidled up to the entrance, well aware of how it would look to anyone who may be attempting to enter through this entrance, speed was of the essence.

Dropping to all fours from the awkward state it had been in while trying to keep as close to the wall as it could it rounded the corner on four very surprised guards.

Immediately the guard nearest the gate was flung into the forest with a powerful blow from the claw of the Alpha, his screams weak due to the massive internal damage.

The other three found it to be in their best interests to grab their weaponry, a series of blocky weapons without blades that spat out brightly colored bits of heat, cold and pain.

Confused by the painful but otherwise ineffectual weapons the Alpha jammed its claws through one then another, pinning them to the ground and leaving the last one to its remaining claw.

Having resolved the four guards the Alpha walked to the gate, hoping it would not be complicated, it knew very little about doors or gates, for some reason the presence had very little information on them.

The barrier in front of it was quite durable and simply pushing it didn't seem to do anything, in fact it seemed to get jammed slightly, deciding to wait for a bit the Alpha rested in front of the gate, curled into the nook in the wall the gate acted as.

Pack members came up with a distinct lack of information other than there was another gate further west which they were unable to get close to due to having some trouble killing the humans there, the humans hadn't seemed very dangerous, why had its pack had any trouble… Oh.

It did not count on this, the presence illuminated it as to why they had problems killing the humans and it realized it had done something bad to its pack, it had told them before they went to sleep not to harm the humans, though not quite in those words and apparently the years had solidified the command.

How was it going to infiltrate the humans with a pack whose senior members wouldn't kill them? This entire situation just became incredibly odd, would it have to do this on its own?

A sound behind it jarred it from its thoughts, "Conney? Why's the door stuck, you mind getting this open? Your shifts over." Oh, well, that worked it supposed.

Moving its bulk away from the door the Alpha then tapped its huge claw ever so lightly against the door as a sign to the ones on the other side, hopefully they wouldn't think too deeply about the sound and just consider it as acknowledgment from their compatriots.

"Finally, Jerry wouldn't be particularly happy if he missed another chance to… Oh Shit?!" Quite. Slamming its arms through the door that had been opened the Alpha beheaded the talkative one on the other side before squeezing through the clearly meant for humans passage and coming face to face with 3 more guards.

A light chuckle of a growl escaped its mouth, food should really be harder to acquire than this, before it lunged forward biting into the closest and slapping the other two to the ground, winding them.

The first and second were quite dead but the other two lived yet and as the Alpha began pressing more weight into them it began feeling that crippling effect that only seemed to occur when it killed humans.

Killing them would be too much effort anyway, it picked them up and promptly threw them outside telling the pack to grab them and… do something with them, promptly blocking itself from them, even as it could feel the presence repeatedly trying to reestablish the connection.

All around it were fat stone… they were houses, places where humans resided, though there appeared to be many made of metal that were very large, perhaps there was a distinction there.

Making its way to one of the large metal houses it poked a claw through the thin metal and created and eye hole so that it might see what is going on inside.

Humans were everywhere, there must have been at least fourty of them, though most of them had strange traits such as small tufts of hair on their head in odd shapes or tusks and horns, what were these animal humans, it had seen them before but never in such concentrated numbers.

Perhaps the humans all had strange animal traits like that, it hadn't really bothered to check a humans body over the few times it had access to one, it would need to look at the guards it had killed earlier if it got the chance.

Moving on from the metal house the Grimm began moving through the cluttered side paths between the many houses avoiding detection where it could and retreating where it would not be able to, if it was seen then getting back in would become even harder than it had already made it by killing the guards.

Settling down next to a large green block of metal filled with foul smelling refuse the Alpha considered on the area, it would not be difficult to stay hidden here, no one had found it and sun had already risen to nearly its peak, if they hadn't found it by now then as long as it didn't fail they wouldn't get the chance to.

It needed to find a place within the walls that it could rest in that was not anywhere near where it had breached the walls, it had traveled far enough that it most likely already resolved the first condition but the second wasn't so obvious.

And yet, as it pulled itself up by the edges of the houses to get a better view it may not be so difficult, there ahead of it was a place that was filled with metal containers arrayed everywhere, it was also near water so it could escape that way if it needed to.

Running carefully to the place of containers the Alpha began inspecting the area, no clear sight lines, multiple open and empty containers everywhere and small hills made of broken and rusted metal only a short distance from the many containers.

Backing into one of the containers was a bit of a squeeze but the Alpha figured if something went wrong it could probably push the walls out destroying its would be cage.

Settling in it felt a curious sensation near its left arm, a gentle rustling, almost like breathing.

Turning its head in the confines was difficult but very possible and it saw something it had somehow missed while fitting itself in backwards, a small human child with triangular fluffs of fur on its already hairy head.

Not feeling like killing another human right before it began sleeping the Alpha decided morning or screaming would determine its fate, jammed its claws into the internal mechanism of the container doors and enclosed itself in darkness.


	11. Chapter 11

**Why hello! Today is all about a little of the ruckus the most/least socially challenged Grimm is up to inside Vale, a little bit about the world its stuck in.**

 **Reaver17: They had the door closed, the Wolf just knocked politely. Turns out manners are great. Eating the person who let you in may be bad manners though.**

 **Guest: I don't plan on modifying the universe of RWBY significantly, therefore it has to be remembered, Hunters and Huntresses are the main characters of their own stories, they're all registered BA's**

 **Yesboss21: I have the specifics on the presence and its doing exactly what it should be doing, the presence and the Grimm that is the Alpha... Well, I'll leave it at that.**

 **Onyx Guardsmen: I am going to be posting every weekday except Friday, I expect some eventual exceptions to this but I will broadcast them beforehand if its something like sickness.**

 **Thanks for reading and enjoy the chapter!**

~I do not own RWBY

Chapter 11

The light came, this time in the form of many tiny lit maws, snapping and its heels, forcing it onward, the light was coming from so many creatures, all beneath it, somehow holding the Alpha in the air.

Larger maws of light began joining the smaller ones, pushing out from the sea of mouths before becoming their own individuals which set up the only being with soft, destroyable flesh, even if it was guarded by armor, fur and ingenuity.

The ocean beneath lifted as if by a wave and from that suddenly not quite opaque wave came the great maw of light, crashing through and threatening an eternal torment should it die by this light.

"Huh, whys it so warm?" The dream died around the Alpha just before the jaws completed their horrifying work, just like always yet this time it was due to something talking nearby.

Senses on high alert the Alpha realized that the scuffling sound was not coming from outside the container but inside, right next to its left arm, oh, right, it was the small human, a child, young, or whatever that meant, it was shaped only in the general mold of the humans yet apparently they came from these children, how strange.

The child was trying to get by its arm and failing miserably, while rubbing its eyes in tiredness, the Alpha could appreciate that, morning always did play havoc with its ability to register things it saw.

Even as it considered the resolution to its annoyance it knew it had only one solution, the child needed to die, moving its limbs it began to shift to crush the small being and end the problem that its existence was.

As it began shifting itself though it felt the same discomfort it always had when killing humans but this was on a level where the pain it had gotten used to was nothing, for some reason the very concept of killing the child was crushingly painful.

It couldn't do it, the chill which settled in it when it considered the action was so painful it felt as though it was incapable of further movement, why was this so painful, it had survived having its chest slashed open, the loss of its arm and a ridiculous amount of blunt trauma.

Deciding the child wasn't worth it the Alpha opened the entrance just enough after shifting its body that the child could see its exit, hopefully now it would take it.

Unfortunately the child seemed to have other ideas as it snuggled into the rough short fur of the Alpha, "Sfine, close the door woofy…" It appeared to not mind its impending death, the Alpha however, very much did care and concluded the child was too tired to recognize it, therefore a swift exit would be the best idea.

Shifting its body slightly to block the light of the outside the Alpha opened the container fully to allows it escape from its unwitting capturer, before swiftly exiting, careful to avoid crushing the child.

Growling in annoyance at the wasted time and threat to its infiltration the Alpha trudged along the field of containers before noticing something odd, there were… moving islands? On the water were moving houses of the humans, perhaps it would infiltrate them later.

Heading towards more of the houses the Alpha noticed that there were a decent number of humans moving about, its rest had eliminated much waiting but it still needed to make sure that no one had come after it, therefore it made its way to the tops of the houses where the humans did not go.

There it slowly pierced a hole into the roof of one of these houses, intent on listening onto what went on inside the houses to gather more information, it had realized it had stumbled upon a roadblock in regards to The Intruder, specifically its ability to find information on the human.

It knew about libraries though, places of information which the humans had access to, how would it get access to those though, there was no way it could slip into an establishment which constantly was filled with humans.

Perhaps it should go closer to the wall, that area seemed open, many plants which the humans toiled to keep alive, there at least it could dig in and wait, it wouldn't learn much of anything though and it realized that this was it trying to avoid the problem, no sense in doing that.

It would spend a few days on various roofs and see if it could learn anything new, this might take a while though, time was hardly the issue at this point anyway.

Two Full Moons later

Miniscule but it was there, the information it wanted, hunters, The Intruder was most likely among their number, also, humans were strange, very strange.

Humans had many sub-classifications, though two were also apparently a main classification, men and women, Faunas, which also seemed to have their own men and women and finally children, which were boys and girls.

They were like the many species of Grimm, they were all different but they were all one, except the Faunas which were maybe not human? It made no sense, but it had a better understanding now.

It also finally understood what that tidbit of knowledge on human procreation meant, for some reason the concept left a pit in its stomach, all creatures should come from their superiors or environment like the Grimm.

It decided to put that information away and not touch it with a metaphorical ten foot stick, at least the hunters sounded like they were different, maybe they didn't have this horrible… never mind.

Lying there had been getting it information at least but it also came with a problem, the residents of the town, specifically the Faunas, were starting to get jumpy when they came near where the Alpha was hiding.

The humans were none the wiser but nevertheless this area of the… city of Vale… was industrial district and apparently that seemed to mean Faunas numbers were about equal humans whereas elsewhere it sounded like Faunas were less common.

It needed to go to the residential or commercial district which is apparently where it might find more important things which may include a library, it really wished these humans and Faunas would talk about more useful things.

It did need to go to those places but there was almost no way it could get there unnoticed, let alone not being noticed once it got inside of the building.

Another thing it heard about was dying, humans and Faunas didn't go to the Shadows when they died, this, it already knew, however, they apparently also died from old age.

It was still piecing that information together but the very thought put a fire in it, the roof it was laying on was slowly getting shredded by its claws as it kneaded them into the stone.

The Intruder may be making its way out of the Alpha's claws by dying, not to a superior opponent but time itself, completely unacceptable!

Seeing a little bit red the Alpha realized that sitting around was foolish and it would rely on its ability to hide rather than run around like a rat.

Waiting for the cover of night the Alpha oriented itself in the direction of the commercial district and set off, determined to find information it could use, perhaps even a list of Hunters it could use.

The night wind chilled the mask on its face but it was back on its path again, though perhaps it could use a little resistance, it understood its brethren were incredibly stupid more often than not but its entrance into the… Vale, was too easy.

The difference between the districts was obvious but not due to obvious divides, first it entered the residential district which was filled with houses that looked nice, and they were everywhere, whereas the industrial district did have many buildings but not that many were houses despite its misconception.

The houses here were quite nice as far as its limited knowledge on aesthetics went but the only reason it was here was to pass through while en route to the commercial district.

Leaping from rooftop to rooftop the Alpha hastened to leave this area as soon as possible, specifically due to the multitude of individuals which were still wandering the streets.

Focusing on landing as quietly as it could the Alpha failed to notice a glint in the moonlight on polished metal, specifically the glint from a weapon.

Yola had not been having a great night, first her boyfriend of almost two years dumped her over reasons she found flimsy at best, just because she was a huntress did not mean she was a bloodthirsty maniac even if she did have an awkward tendency to come home covered in Grimm blood.

Next her parents had called about said boyfriend, apparently her younger sister had said something stupid for some reason and now they were wondering about a date for the marriage, making her even more irritated.

Lastly, the bar she frequented had gotten shut down due to it putting up too many paintings or something stupid like that, things were getting stupid around here lately, she hadn't seen an artist on the streets since she was a kid and the lack of color around town was starting to show, ever since Dust got discovered really.

But the last thing she saw as she wandered the streets in an unfortunately not drunken haze was something she only saw out in the field, a big Beowulf, specifically, a Beowulf that appeared for only a fraction of a moment, hidden by the darkness of the night, but she was a huntress and Aura naturally enhanced her senses.

Why was there a Grimm here, in the middle of Vale? How was there a Grimm here in the middle of Vale? Deploying her weapon, a cloaked spear, the banner of which was dust woven, a new usage of Dust only recently discovered.

Running at the nearest building Yola leapt up and surveyed her surroundings carefully before seeing the Beowulf about ten houses away moving fast.

Pulling the cloak of the spear around herself she began leaping after the Grimm, intent on finding the purpose of this lone creature that acted so unlike the others.

The chase did last for almost an hour before the creature stopped atop a somewhat tall building in the commercial district, it appeared to be looking around for something, had she found the reason why the Grimm always seemed to ruin everything they did? A spy Grimm?

Finally the Grimm dropped to the ground very carefully and looked through a window from the outside, she wasn't sure what he was looking for but she did notice that it didn't seem to have found it.

Leaping back to the roof the Grimm continued onward, stopping whenever it found a large building then perusing the building from the outside before moving on.

It finally stopped when it found the local library, starting inside intently, before suddenly jamming a claw into the wall and beginning to carve out an entrance, seriously, a library?

Confused as to why a Grimm would care about a library when even most of the residents of the city didn't even care enough to go to libraries, she certainly didn't at least.

After a couple of minutes the Alpha made its way through the wall, its pace having slowed down as it prepared to fully breach, checking and rechecking from the outside to confirm that no one was near his intended entrance.

Having moved to a better position by now Yola watched as it went inside, preparing to fight in case of the beast threatening civilians which she didn't think was its goal, despite her gut reaction of killing it.

There was something off about this Grimm and it may have also had something to do with the fact that the Alpha looked a little stronger than a normal Alpha and any of the larger Grimm could be more dangerous than expected once they got old enough.

It appeared to be grabbing books and opening them, an impressive feat considering the size of its claws, yet even as it opened the books it seemed frustrated by something, throwing the books to the ground in anger for no obvious reason.

Eventually it grabbed as many books as it could manage and lumbered out the hole it had come from before leaping to the roof and continuing back to the residential district.

Following it suddenly became much easier but it was at this point she was really wishing she had some way of magically calling on some fellow hunters, there had been rumors of Dust based electricity being used to create communication devices but she knew that was a long way off.

Feeling more and more worried as the Alpha continued running past the residential district into the industrial district, she didn't come down to this part of the city very often and for good reason, the people who lived here tended to be not the nicest people.

Yet even as she ran through the district it didn't slow or stop, even running up to the walls that separated the city proper from the agricultural district and the outside.

It arrived at that gate she had heard got attacked a few days ago by some Grimm and snuck up to the guards that were lounging around on this side of the gate.

Would it blow its cover now? She was prepared to attack and fight together with those guards but she was really trying to find out what this Grimm was going to do with the books, this could be revolutionary.

Finally getting up next to the guards the Alpha settled its claws right behind the nearest and looked to be about to behead the poor guard, but it seemed to be hesitating, perhaps unsure.

After standing still like a statue of death for almost thirty seconds the Alpha seemed to decide something and smacked the guards in the head, knocking him to the ground before leaning into him until he stopped struggling.

Feeling somewhat sick Yola kept reciting to herself, "You've seen and done worse, you've seen and done worse…" hoping that the man was still alive she watched as the Alpha hopefully knocked out every member of the resting guard before moving to the gate door and tapping on it a few times.

After a minute of periodic tapping the gate opened from the other side to a few confused guards who looked around and saw their unconscious comrades.

Yelling something three of the guards ran inside and began trying to rouse their fallen compatriots, leaving the one on guard who was promptly overwhelmed when the sneaky Alpha slipped through the temporarily open gate.

This was going to be reckless but she quickly scrawled out a note for the guards to find, "Grimm did this, following clever Grimm, Grimm stole books, Huntress Yola." Before turning to the forest and inhaling deeply.

Time to make history.


	12. Chapter 12

**Sticking with Yola for a bit longer here, See you all tomorrow! The map I've been using for how everything goes down in Vale is the one from Torchwick's map of Vale, at the moment their walls aren't quite so good and the Agricultural District is outside of the main walls, the ones that the Alpha breaches.**

 **Yesboss21: Good point, corrected. Second of all the Alpha's pack set up camp in the cave temple in the Emerald forest outside of Beacon, specifically the one that can be seen during the fight with the Giant Nevermore at the end of initiation, that huge area of ruins?**

~I do not own RWBY

Chapter 12

The journey was frustratingly far, the Grimm Yola was following didn't seem to tire, even though it was running while holding a bunch of books it seemed determined to not damage.

Trailing it wasn't particularly difficult, it was aware of its surroundings to some degree but it didn't seem to understand the mobility of Hunters and therefore seemed to be watching its back in all the wrong places.

Though it did seem to understand scent trails, it passed through waterways up or downstream every time it saw one, maybe because it was similar to a wolf?

Eventually it seemed to slow down and Yola got the chance to orient herself, which led to an awkward thought, "I'm near the new hunter school being put up, is it set up in the Emerald forest?"

The Beowulf eventually slowed down almost completely as it left the trees and entered into a large set of ruins leading up to a cliff, she hadn't been through this part of the emerald forest before, it was impressive looking, the scale of the ruins.

Suddenly a few mounds of dirt burst open and hidden Beowulves leapt out before heading to what she assumed was their Alpha's side.

Setting the books it was carrying with the smaller Grimm it then walked down the long stone catwalk to a center tower before moving beyond to a temple like construct in the face of the cliff.

"There ya go, something in there then, now's as good a time as any, see you later oh prey of mine." Yola grinned and turned and what she saw startled her greatly.

A human and a Faunas were walking out of the woods with a few Beowulves next to them, specifically, not killing them, in fact the Beowulves were the ones which looked injured the… captives were at best scuffed but otherwise uninjured.

Since when have the Grimm ever had captives, never, that's when, that's how it had always worked and always would because otherwise cruel hope would make its way into the hearts of those who lost loved ones to the Grimm.

An image of a smiling young man flashed in her mind for a moment before she ruthlessly throttled it, blanking her face and deciding to find out what was up with these captives, the report could come later, this was important.

Sneaking to the best of her ability she followed along whilst clinging to the side of the bridge to prevent vision of herself.

Eventually the Beowulves reached the temple and stepped inside along with their captives, this was it, steeling herself and blanking her emotions as they had taught her to avoid detection by Grimm she ever so slowly crept into the foreboding entrance.

Almost immediately she could feel the difference in atmosphere, whereas the outside ruins were expansive, lonely and sad the inside was quiet, brooding and paranoia-inducing.

Shuffling to the side of the expansive entrance she kept her eyes out for anywhere a Beowulf could hide, which, considering the broken tiles and stone, wasn't very many places thankfully.

The cave temple walls were smooth stone for the most part except for in the back left of the room where it was obvious it had been clawed away and a tunnel had been created.

Moving into the tunnel began to sincerely wish her semblance was stealth oriented because there was no way she was going to avoid detection forever, hopefully she could at least find the captives though.

Coming upon a lit room was not really within her expectation she had to admit but the illumination did wonders for her perception and even illuminated her immediate goal, the captives inside said room.

Looking around carefully from the entrance to the room Yola eventually decided that there were no Grimm immediately present and stepped in slowly to avoid alarming the occupants.

Putting a hand over the mouth of the human woman she whispered into her ear, "Relax, rescue party here." Which had an immediate effect on the Faunas male who had not been silenced, specifically that his posture went from extremely stiff to… well, still quite stiff but at least he was a little calmer.

"Kinda hate to ask this question but… why aren't you dead? Grimm are not well known for their prisoner taking habits." She whispered to the both of them.

The Faunas spoke up, "We do not know either, we were on post guarding a southern personnel exit to the farmlands when one of the other guards went to the gate to get the external guards ready to swap when a huge Grimm suddenly ripped through the now opened gate and killed the two closest to the door."

The woman shivered as she stepped in, "It seemed like it was going to kill us but it suddenly let up the pressure it was about to crush us with and tossed us through the gate where a few smaller Grimm grabbed us and dragged us off."

Yola then remembered that there had been only one gate attack relatively recently and it had been almost two months ago, they should be dead by now for so many reason, but she hadn't considered that starvation should have been one.

"You've been here almost two months? How have you not starved, or dehydrated for that matter?" Yola inquired while glancing at the entrance again.

"They've been taking us out into the forest regularly, it's almost like the Grimm are treating us like pets, evidently the world really has its opinion on Faunas set…" the Faunas male spat, clearly angered by the situation.

Yola began moving back to the entrance, "Okay, well, enough chit-chatting, I need to leave and therefore so do you, let's get a move on before they catch on."

Nodding the two got up and got in position behind the huntress who began sneaking from the room and down the tunnels, a shilling feeling ran down her spine as she exited the tunnels into the main room of the temple.

The chilling feeling was realized when she saw the Alpha Beowulf step in the cave entrance in front of her, "But, I followed it after it came in? How?" she muttered to herself in distress.

Seeing the huntress the Alpha lifted its front claws and shoved out its chest before roaring so loudly she could feel her ears ringing and then everything went wrong.

As if from the coming from the ether Beowulves pulled themselves up from under tiles and dropped from small alcoves that pockmarked the ceiling that she hadn't noticed earlier.

Preparing some bravado for her rescues Yola joked, "Okay, its gonna be an uphill battle, they seem to like you so make a run for it when ya see an opening, wish me luck!"

Snapping her cloaked spear to attention Yola assumed a combat stance and wrapped the cloak about her body, preparing her semblance for action.

The first Beowulf to engage appeared to be a younger one, almost unique amongst a pack of so many older Beowulves and its attack showed its impatience, a simple run then leap, she couldn't have asked for a more killable target.

Sweeping her cloak over the target the Grimm simply disappeared, no trace of it remaining as her cloak seemed to consume the beast completely.

Seemingly enraged by this the Alpha ran forward from his position at the entrance while the rest of the pack watched like silent observers to the incoming death match.

Slightly confused by the un-Alpha like behavior of the Grimm she braced her spear for the charge, prepared to skewer the clearly inexperienced Alpha.

At the last moment the Alpha made a stabbing motion which accurately stabbed into the link on the spear that attached the cloak to the weapon, forcibly slamming its claw to the ground and bringing the weapon with it.

Staring up at the eyes of the Grimm she realized as it grabbed her that it seemed to have some idea how to fight Aura users, don't let them get away being the motto.

Putting its huge arms around her in what was possibly the worst hug she had ever received she felt her Aura attempt to prevent the crushing of her bones and begin to rapidly diminish.

Perhaps if she were someone adept at Aura control or some Aura blessed juggernaut like what appeared every now and then in long running Hunter families she may have been able to survive this assault or even fight back but unfortunately she was neither of those things and was a first generation Huntress, her Aura was nothing special.

Attempting to shift her caught spear she managed to get her cloak over her foot before her Aura finally drained and almost immediately she screamed out in pain from the power of the crush she was enduring with only her body.

The moment her Aura shattered though she felt the Alpha give somewhat and only a second later it unceremoniously dropped her on the tile before stepping back and looking at her in a non-threatening manner.

"Uh, did it do this to you too when it got ya?" Yola called over her shoulder to the terrified individuals she had failed to rescue who hadn't moved a muscle since the brief fight started.

"Y-yes, It seemed very intent on killing us then seemed to consider otherwise, you might be able to get out of this alive." The female guard told her while shivering slightly.

After staring at her for way too long one of the older Beowulves hobbled up carrying a book in its claws very carefully which it promptly set in front of her before retreating.

Looking at her still the Alpha tapped the ground and used one of its terrifying claws to ever so slowly open the book whose title appeared to be, 'Implementation of Dust Constructs' before settling on a page which appeared to be randomly in the middle of the book.

Tapping the ground next to it the Alpha made a grunting noise while continuing to tap the ground next to the book faster and faster as if it was getting irritated.

Finally tired of her lack of response or movement the Alpha grabbed her head, eliciting a sharp cry of pain from Yola before shoving her head into the book and making another grunting noise.

This, did it want her to read it? Why? The Grimm didn't have souls, they couldn't even use Dust, why did it even… oh, no, there was no way, an infiltrator Grimm she could understand, the Grimm hated humans, but this was so far beyond what she knew of the Grimm.

"There is no freakin' way I am telling you what is in this book, over my dead body" Yola set her face and internally quavered at her ultimatum, an ultimatum which Grimm really had no problem following through with normally.

Shrugging it picked her up, awkward pained squeaks coming from the defeated huntress whose head was now being held up by the creature which had defeated her, this was it, she was going to die and it was in some cave near Vale no one would probably visit for a very long time.

The pressure on her neck was significant as the human neck was not designed to hold the weight of a human body but thankfully her naturally durable body due to years of Aura enhanced training and the natural body reinforcement Aura puts its user through constantly over their lifetime kept her safe from the rather not gentle movements of the Alpha carrying her.

Eventually light returned to her world as she was unceremoniously dropped on the ground of the lit room she had rescued the captives from earlier.

Rubbing her neck she watched as the captives walked back into the room unhurried by any angry Alpha, in fact, the only Grimm present appeared to be a rather old Beowulf that proceeded to curl up in the corner next to a series of furs before going to sleep.

"I… what?" she fumbled her words as she looked at her fellow captives with confusion who promptly helped her up and moved her to the corner with the furs near the Grimm, "Here is where we will be staying until we enact an escape, get rescued or, I guess, die, get used to it, names Grey by the way." The Faunas offered his inspiring idea on their predicament and Yola couldn't help but feel he was on to something.

"Arnaya, pleased to meet you in spite of the circumstances, who might you be?" the woman asked. "Yola, huntress, depressed, I think I'm going to take advantage of these furs here and see if I can't recover my Aura, even without my weapon I should be able to kill a lot of Beowulves. If he wants us alive so badly I'll just thin his numbers some."

At the entrance to the room the Alpha reappeared growling and startling Yola, before it began dropping book after book off, all the books it had managed to acquire on its hunt earlier.

Tapping the ground next to the books the Alpha then slowly walked away leaving only the books, the single Beowulf, the captives and some furs left in the room.

"Well, this has been a fun day. Come morning maybe I'll humor or kindly host by reading him some bedtime stories from that fairy tale book instead of the useful stuff it probably wants from the more in-depth books… oh yeah, this'll be… great…" Slumping onto the furs Yola only had time to note the Beowulf in the room provided some wonderful background noise before sleep consumed her.


	13. Chapter 13

**Evening! A little bit of conflict and little further toward the Alpha's goal!**

 **Guest: Thanks for the appreciation!**

~I do not own RWBY

Chapter 13

Bored, she was so bored, Huntress though she may be Yola was not entirely sure about continuing her escape attempts, every time she tried to get out she found a horde of apathetic Boewulves in every direction except the entrance, there she found the Alpha, always waiting.

It was ridiculous, it had to leave eventually but there it sat, still like a statue, swatting her back whenever she tried to sneak past until eventually she was relying on the others for any form of entertainment, they were allowed outside to gather food but she was lead to a specifically dug out area far from any other part of the tunnel where it was eventually implied via gestures she was to relieve herself there.

Humiliation had been her first reaction but even that had become blunted, boredom, nothing attacked her and she was left to her own devices while the others were gone much of the day, eventually she caved and picked up one of the books just to distract herself.

After she began reading she noticed that the others were returned more early in the day which, while odd, did let her at least talk about things which eventually boiled down to the books they were all reading.

Being stuck inside the cave made telling time incredibly difficult, she put the scratches in the wall but she was unable to really feel the significance of them as they piled up.

"Ugh, what does it waaaaaaant? I'm not going to give it the information in these books so why does it even care?" Yola complained while rolling off the furs onto the cold stone.

Lying on her back she began to do sit-ups, at least she could tell everyone that she had gotten rid of that bit of… Well, they didn't need to know that, at least she was getting some toned abs from all this, it felt like a prison lifestyle.

The old Beowulf of late had decided to rest right next to her furs where it did a wonderful job as a heater for the rather cold nights, in fact, on the nights where it became too cold several older Beowulves would come in and lie all around them.

This… the threat of the Grimm gradually eased in her mind, fading away with the boredom and normalcy of her days stuck in the cave, her time, however, was rudely interrupted by a loud rumbling from the entrance to the cave.

Picking herself up Yola looked at the suddenly alert Beowulf next to her which promptly ran out of the room, Yola only just behind the creature, eager for any change even if it did seem foreboding.

As she ran into the temple main room the smell of Grimm blood overpowered her nostrils and she slightly gagged, normally when someone with Aura kills a Grimm they dissolve away just fast enough that the scent of blood is usually trace.

The sight of the main room told her why the smell was so overpowering, in front of her was a significant number of the members of the pack that caught her actively fighting a few Deathstalkers and a flock of Nevermore's.

Why were they fighting? She knew Grimm had territorial disputes sometimes but that was almost always lesser Grimm and they were more of small skirmishes, perhaps the books were wrong?

The moment she walked in the room every single one of the attacking Grimm turned her direction and made a beeline for her, reaching behind her instinctively for her weapon a sense of dread overcame her as she remembered once again she had been disarmed.

Looking at her impending death Yola's vision was suddenly obscured by huge claws which then set against her front and pushed her back to the tunnel, a huge figure walked by whose claws moved away from her along with its movement, this was clearly the Alpha.

Seeing the attacking Grimm watch this interaction she thought they had gone mad, the moment they had seen her they changed direction but were still fighting, the moment they saw the Alpha though they went insane, ignoring whatever fight they were a part of and rushing with wild abandon at the newest target.

Yola was nudged off her feet by the old Beowulf behind her, promptly falling onto the back of the creature, seated on its back as if a Grimm chair with no backrest, a chair which moved to the edge of the tunnel so she might have a better view.

The Alpha was ridiculous, probably not for the first time in human history she wished the Grimm could be tamed, their brutal prowess would help greatly against other Grimm, of course, if that were a resolution they wouldn't really have a Grimm problem in the first place.

Stepping forward and slamming the clawed foot down the Alpha pinned the front claw of a Deathstalker before slicing off the incoming stinger.

Grabbing the stinger-less tail of the Deathstalker the Alpha lifted the body of the medium sized Grimm, using it as a shield to the charge of another larger Deathstalker which promptly crashed into the barrier and knocked the Alpha back a few feet.

The smaller Grimm of the Alpha's pack were swatting Nevermore's from the air inside the cave, preventing them from massing into an effective attack force that could threaten their leader.

The large Deathstalker, temporarily losing sight on its primary target saw Yola and made a beeline, the old Beowulf realizing the danger too late and get pushed to the ground by the huntress using it as a spring to get above the incoming attack.

Having missed its swipe with its pincers the Grimm then went for the kill-blow with its stinger on the mid-air, immobile huntress who did not really expect her Aura to be able to fully resist such a direct blow from so powerful a creature, if only she had her weapon.

A force hit her, but it wasn't from the direction of her impending doom, instead something collided with her side and shoved her just far enough to the side that her Aura flared from the light contact but took no noticeable dip.

Landing she heard a familiar clatter, turning she saw her precious weapon lying on the floor next to her, not willing to look a gift horse in the mouth she immediately grabbed it and rushed at the immediate threat to her life, intent on slaying the Grimm as she had trained most of her life to do.

Lunging forward with the spear and stabbing it into the joint right behind the Deathstalker's pincer she fluttered her cloak over the large pincer right up to where her spear obscured the injury.

The moment her cloak touched back to the spear the Grimm let out a jarring screech and pulled its pincer back, sadly for it though, there was no longer a pincer there, nothing was left of the appendage and the Huntress leapt back with a very smug grin on her face.

"That's more like it! Bring it ya big bug! I'm getting outta here and you're first on the list, next is my esteemed host!" Yola yelled out, her Semblance making the intricate designs on her cloak begin to change color from the blank grey with slightly lighter grey designs to a dark black and a bright, almost fluorescent, blue.

Fluttering her cloak around her Yola tucked her body in while popping a small loaded dust vial from the spears shaft and sprinkling it in the air, "I'm going to bring you to the other side, one piece at a time!"

The cloak finally obscuring her completely it seemed to wrap in on itself until it simply disappeared, even the spear having been brought in earlier.

The Deathstalker only seemed to care for a moment before it began to turn back to the Alpha, intent on continuing its destruction of that target, this mistake almost immediately cost it its other pincer.

Screeching out in rage and frustration the creature began lashing its tail out at the air, not sure what it was aiming for but determined to stop its invisible attacker.

Feeling something upon its bone mask the Deathstalker quickly attempted to retreat before its world suddenly changed, whereas it had been in a cave before, now it was surrounded by featureless grey, an expanse which had only one feature, the Huntress that had injured it so.

Determined to destroy the Huntress it attempted to pierce her with its tail only to find it couldn't control its tail, in fact, it couldn't control anything, it did however, feel a terrible effect of loss, it couldn't feel its body.

Watching the head of Deathstalker made Yola laugh, it didn't seem to understand it was already gone, she had trapped it and its body could sustain it no longer, death was the only remaining possibility.

Slumping down a bit inside the grey space Yola was breathing heavily, "Okay, I was near the entrance to the secondary tunnels… haah… so… I need to go… this way… come on, lets go body, move… move…"

Lumbering off in one direction amongst the infinite grey Yola seemed to be sloshing through the deepest of snow or mud, her every movement spoke of herculean effort and sweat quickly accumulated on her limbs despite the temperature of the strange lands being somewhat chilly.

After having walked a few feet she fell to her knees, "Dang, okay, rest, rest, gotta be ready…" Drawing her cloak about her she began breathing deeply trying to cool off before covering herself in the cloak completely and disappearing once again into its impossible depths.

Reappearing Yola immediately got up and sprinted for the doorway she was already near only turning slightly when she heard a roar of pain from behind her.

There, holding the two pincers of another large Deathstalker was the Alpha, attempting to move its body around the stinger as it played target practice with the somewhat stuck Alpha.

"I ain't dead… we all get one… ONE, YA HEAR THAT MISTER ALPHA!" Yelling at the top of her lungs she leapt at the pincer and jabbed her spear into the vulnerable joint, popping the thing off like a fruit from a tree.

The Alpha immediately took advantage of this and shifted its knees down before cracking one of the pincers and tearing off the other by slicing the weak flesh behind it.

Brutally smashing the Deathstalker to the floor the Alpha then clawed a deep gouge in its face mask before slotting each of its claws into an eye socket then ramming downward with all its force, the resulting crash shattering the tiles below and skewering right through the entire body.

Deciding now would be a prudent time to slink away Yola hopped off the slowly decaying body and began moving to the side of the room so she might be less obvious.

The Alpha clearly saw this and moved to the entrance before settling down again, blocking her exit, but this time she had her weapon, this time she could… well, this time she would be more prepared at least.

Setting her weapon in front of her in a stance she began inching forward, intent on beating the Alpha down and possibly destroying it piece by piece with her semblance, even if she was reasonably sure she didn't have the remaining Aura to completely pull him apart.

It was at that moment that the old Beowulf walked forward and settled itself in between the Alpha and the huntress, blocking her direct path to her target.

"What the, get out of the way or attack me! This place and these Grimm are so freakin weird…" Yola grumbled before trying to step around only to be blocked by a few other Grimm, their strange tendency towards pacifism toward her and the other captives making her reluctant to just start a bloodbath.

Distracted by the wall of Grimm she didn't even notice when the Alpha had moved to right next to her, clearly when it needed to it was quiet, its huge claws snagging the cloak ring and the other hand knocking the spear from her hand.

Suddenly disarmed Yola began worrying for her life again, she had aggressed her capturers with a weapon, intent to kill their leader, they might not be so forgiving this time.

Picking her up the Alpha walked down the tunnels, eventually arriving at the room she, Arnaya and Grey now lived before setting her down on the furs and stepping back to observe her.

Worried again her mind began to wander twisted paths as she considered her brutal execution or various other terrible things these human-like Grimm might impose upon her.

After staring at her for almost a full minute the Alpha pulled her weapon out and pointed it at her, possibly intending on killing her with her own weapon.

It then dropped the spear on the furs that made up the base of her bedding and turned around, leaving its back wide open and slowly walking out, "What? What, what, what, what is going on?!"

Her mind exploding she didn't even grab her spear, just falling back into her furs, retreating to the normal insanity of her dreams, she would sort this out later when things made more sense.

Grey and Arnaya watched the strange interaction before shrugging at each other and heading out with their Beowulf escort to begin their day and hopefully find something delicious.


	14. Chapter 14

**So, with the holidays upon us I will be taking the next week or so to relax and love on family, I hope you all have a lovely holiday and hopefully some relaxing days ahead.**

 **Yesboss21: The Alpha should be something like 34 years old, at least, from when it gained intelligence at some level, it is likely quite a bit older, but for the purposes of knowing how old, 34 ought to do. The statue of Jaune Arc's ancestor is on the Beacon campus, the ancestor has yet to be born for now though so no statue yet. As far as the map goes, "Torchwick Map" should find you it on the almighty google. The Alpha is set up on the right side of the map.**

~I do not own RWBY

Chapter 14

The light felt safe, so warm, as it should be, yet, even as she floated in the warmth of the light she felt something stirring.

The light suddenly disappeared, the light that surrounded her was gone and she opened her eyes, searching desperately for her light she saw some appear but instead of comfort she felt apprehension toward this new light.

The light was muted, surrounded by a dark shape, the shape of a mouth, a huge mouth which stretched larger and larger, blocking out the darkness outside from her view.

The light that came from within terrified her, it was cold, cruel and it didn't care for her wish for the comforting light again.

The mouth split into several smaller mouths just as it was about to crush and consume her, the mouths began to bite and tear her apart, her body failing and her vision fading.

As the somehow lit darkness began to fade she heard a loud roar echo out, the light-mouths immediately dispersed leaving her dying in the dark, wishing for her light to return.

Something lifted her ever so slightly and she felt her light begin to return, the pitch black being was fanning the flames of the light that was coming from herself and returning her to normal, but the flame was different, it burned brightly using the darkness around her as fuel.

The world slowly faded away, but this time without the pain and terror of death, the comfort creating a warm effect.

Waking with a start Yola looked around and her eyes settled on her spear sitting at the base of the furs that made up her bed, it was real, the Alpha had actually given her weapon back.

Reaching for the weapon quickly her eyes darted around the room, looking to see if anything had changed, if she had anything new to worry about, all she saw were her roommates and a single Beowulf for each one of them.

Still entirely unsure as to the time of day she stretched before beginning some light exercises with her weapon, it felt good, it felt right, she had the extension of her body which made her dangerous back, perhaps an old weapon to some, being unable to shift, but to her it was irreplaceable.

Having finished her morning wake up routines Yola decided to visit her startlingly friendly host and see what she could glean from an actual interaction, seeing as he clearly wasn't trying to kill her, maybe she could even get some barely intelligible gesture based conversation.

Stepping out of the tunnel into the main room of the temple the devastation of the last night's battle was evident, in the tiny pools of still evaporating Grimm blood and the craters from both the combatants' efforts.

Towards the front of the room, hunched over was the Alpha and for the first time she had ever seen it was curled up and looked like it was sleeping, still near the entrance so it was probably a light sleep but nevertheless a new sight.

Moving over to the entrance she sat on the far side, not willing to wake and enrage her captor just yet, she saw the baleful red eyes in the ceilings watching her movements, no doubt to make sure she didn't do anything to their leader.

Leaning against the stone she gradually settled in waiting for the large beast across from her to waken as well, perhaps she had woken a little too early, the sun was not up yet though the sky outside the cave did have the telltale signs of the beginning of the day.

Just as her eyes began to droop the Alpha stirred, stretching its long arms tipped with claws of bright bone-white, only clean because of the unnatural physiology of the Grimm.

Shifting its body into a better position the Alpha saw her sitting by the entrance watching it and for just a moment the Alpha tensed, its entire body ready to attack, before it realized she was sitting and her weapon was not in a ready state.

"Hey, so… I don't know if you can understand me but thanks for at least giving me my weapon back. Oh, and not killing me I suppose." Yola tried to break the ice, as far as she could bring herself to do so considering her talking partner was an abomination against humankind.

Its burning eyes stared at her and she self-consciously chuckled awkwardly to herself hoping to diffuse the suddenly very uncomfortable conversation that hadn't even started yet.

The Alpha began tapping its claws on the floor, the sound painful against the background and only served to increase the tension as she became more and more worried that something had changed and she hadn't noticed it.

As her stress rose she began to notice something about the tapping sound that confused her, it was to the beat of an old hunting song, the kind she remembered her parents would hum when she was little when trying to get her excited about their stories they came home with.

Suddenly listening intently she noticed the creature had closed its eyes and was using more of its claws to tap in the sounds of the song, it was crude, but it was still recognizable.

"Where did you learn that?" She was genuinely curious about this creature now, how did it know these things, why hadn't it killed her, why did it seem to want knowledge? So many questions.

The question brought an end to the tapping and reopening its eyes the Alpha looked right at her before getting up and grabbing a book it had apparently been looking at earlier, some fiction novel by the name on the front.

"A rarity nowadays, that work of fiction, the expression of self hasn't been doing very well in recent years, though I don't think that has much relevance to your culture or anything, you're definitely the first Grimm I've found that hasn't actively tried to bite my head off." The moment she said that she considered that insulting the possibly existing culture of the creature.

The Alpha began to open the book to a random page before walking over to her, immediately setting her on edge causing it to stop and set the book down before backing off.

A short bit later one of the Beowulves walked over and grabbed the book, walking the rest of the distance between the two, this did make her less apprehensive, given she could kill a normal Beowulf with minimal effort.

Looking at the page the Alpha opened to she found the only thing significant was it appeared to be the beginning of a chapter within the book, the first letter looking especially large, fancy and gothic.

"Do you want me to read the chapter or something?" Yola was somewhat confused but there wasn't much to figure other than this, why else would it give her a piece of fiction, something that it wouldn't be able to learn anything from.

The Alpha began to tap its claws in the pattern of the song it had showed off to her before, what did that mean? Was it using that as its form of communication? Did it mean yes or no? Something else? Eventually deciding it wouldn't hurt she began to read from the passage.

The story had mostly developed but she got the idea that there were some notable bits she was missing, such as who the main love interest was, which seemed to be important, after having read the two pages that were opened she slid it away from herself.

"Dunno why you were that interested, seems like drivel to me, but then again I guess I'm a little bit new gen and don't care for the artsy stuff." Shrugging her shoulders she leaned back against the wall as a Beowulf came over and retrieved the book for the Alpha who promptly sat down and began looking at it.

In fact the Alpha was studying it intensely, face unmoving, she couldn't tell what its eyes were doing given the unnatural glow all Grimm had but it still seemed very intense in its reading of the book, even though after several minutes it still hadn't moved from the pages that were open.

"Huh, okay, well, I'm gonna go back to the room and get some exercise, gotta keep in shape in case I need to fight my way outta here after all, not that you haven't been a lovely host or anythin." She figured the Grimm clearly didn't care for her presence anymore, maybe later it would be in a more… social mood.

On the way back to the room she passed Grey who was heading out with a few Beowulves, lightly waving he called out to her, "I'm going to be keeping an eye out for anything with a bit more protein in it, the Grimm don't scare away animals much, makes them very useful for hunting, back in a few hours then."

Having said his piece he immediately marched off, not the most personable person that one, though considering her circumstances it wouldn't have surprised her if Arnaya also disliked him though at least she would be disguising it well if that was the case.

Beginning some pre-exercise stretches she used her weapon once she got to some of the more extreme ones, today would be the day she got out, the Grimm gave her weapon back, it would be practically rude for her not to oblige it, plus she had been here for way too long.

Having stretched sufficiently she began some light warm-ups to get all fired up, "Gonna need some dust after this, wasn't exactly packin much before and staying in my semblance that long wasn't great for the reserves I had…"

Moving towards the entrance to her room she saw the older Beowulf was still following her, suddenly feeling guilty while looking at the Grimm whose only purpose in life seemed to be to follow her around and keep her comfortable, probably also to keep an eye on her but still.

She had never tried it before but she supposed Grimm might be able to be knocked out, it was that or just ignore the servant-like Grimm and get to the escaping, hoping it wouldn't get in her way.

Moral quandaries… nonsense, total nonsense, psyching herself up was easy enough, she did fight Grimm for a living after all, serious face on, ready to go.

Walking into the temple room she found the Alpha right where she left it, staring into the book she had read it, something about that book greatly interested it evidently.

"Alright, you've kept me here long enough, time for round two big guy!" Twirling her spear like a parade leader she could feel the adrenaline beginning to spike in her system.

Looking up from the book the Alpha reared up to its full height, towering over her significantly more human frame, the adrenaline made her antsy to attack but she wanted to wait for it to come to her, hopefully it would fight cautiously if it had seen her use her semblance the other day.

Its muscles taut the Alpha made a slight motion forward before suddenly losing all tension from its limbs and simply walking over to the entrance, settling itself in fully, blocking the exit from both sides.

Feeling cheated she began to walk forward menacingly before the old Beowulf walked in front of her, completely without any intention of attacking, no bloodthirst at all, just being in the way, preventing her from attacking its leader.

"Ugh, this is stupid, you know what? Fine, you stupid pacifist, I'm still outta here though." Running forward she pulled on the cloak, setting it in position to envelope something.

This got the Alpha's attention fast as it scrambled to its feet and tensed its muscles again, though this time it seemed to be doing so with the intention of fleeing the death that her semblance would be for it.

Just before she arrived at it though she swirled the cloak up and swept it around herself in a wide arc, hopefully keeping the Alpha from trying anything last second.

The world changed at that moment, instead of being surrounded by the cave she was surrounded by an endless evenly lit grey expanse which immediately put her at ease.

"Okay, gotta move then, I have more Aura this time but much less dust, gotta make the most of this." Running forward she began her alternate dimension trek outside of the Alpha's influence.

After focusing on running for the last five minutes she was no longer able to move any further and collapsed to her knees, "Never any easier… geh…"

Lightly gagging from the dryness of her own throat she thought she heard something other than herself, instantly making her wonder if she had pulled part of the Alpha there with her.

Turning she found something which startled her greatly, the old Bewoulf, it was here, it looked like it was putting in tremendous effort to continue forward but it didn't seem tired, not that she was sure if Grimm could even get tired.

"How…? You friggin leapt in after me didn't you… this is not okay, what am I going to do with you? I don't have the Aura to take you with me, keep you here, nor put you back after I leave… What the heck!" She suddenly yelled out, clearly frustrated at the prospect of dealing with the Grimm she didn't really want to kill.

It was at that moment that her semblance dropped her and unwitting companion into the woods, which was fine except for the small detail of her hearing voices all around her.

"No activity!" a military sounding voice rang out, "Keep in contact, don't let anything slip through, something has one of our own and we will find her!"

They were searching for her! The pessimistic side of herself grumbled though, "Took ya long enough, woulda been dead if I hadn't found the only pacifist Grimm in the world."

The sound was apparently enough for the hyper alert search party to investigate, "Shoot, um… I… Gah! Fine! Stupid nonsense Grimm…" Sweeping her cloak over the older Grimm she caught the whole creature and dumped it in her semblance.

"Identify yourself!" The members of the search party yelled out as they got near, this one might take some explaining, she supposed she probably should have updated her huntress profile picture, it was a little outdated. A lot outdated.


	15. Chapter 15

**Ah, the Holidays, how lovely indeed, stress on, stress off, like a button! I hope you all enjoyed your holidays, mine were quite enjoyable but who cares about that, I have returned and I shall be continuing my previous trend of a chapter every Monday-Thursday so look forward to the, my fingers can't keep up with my imagination, update speed going forward! (Maybe I should take one of those community college typing classes... Hmm)**

 **Silver: I can't either! No really, as mentioned previously my fingers can't keep up with my imagination when I sit down! Type faster darn you!**

 **Quadredurudoubleslash2: Yola was in there for about a week and a half, time gets skewed when you aren't allowed regular access to the outside or anything really interesting after all.**

 **Yesboss21: Oh very much Grey, on that note in my mind I considered the old Beowulf somewhat washed out of colors so this all works out perfectly!**

~I do not own RWBY

Chapter 15

"Stupid search and rescue, shit at their jobs and then decide to grill ME for five straight hours…" Yola had not had a great day so far, between being mentally exhausted from escaping and physically exhausted due to still having to fight a few Grimm on the way back.

Seriously, they were the search and rescue but they still needed her assistance with the Grimm they came across?! And to top it all off she was running on fumes for the longest time, her natural regeneration of Aura being spent on keeping the tag-a-long Old Beowulf inside the grey space.

Finally arriving at her apartment she fumbled with her keys before opening the door and crashing on her couch, "Oh that's nice…" content to lie there and relax her Aura informed her yet again of her baggage.

Groaning exaggeratedly she got up and moved to most open part of her flat and readied her spear to impale the creature should it do anything other than observe its surroundings, she still wasn't sure why she was doing this but maybe she should drop by a hunter psychologist or something, she was probably messed up in the head at this point.

A quick flash of a cloak later and a bewildered Beowulf hit the ground its dull orange glowing eyes quickly darting around to take in its surroundings, muscles taut, though, perhaps annoyingly it didn't seem to be observing her.

"Oy, dumb mutt, eyes here!" For just a moment she thought she saw the eyes of the Grimm deepen from their unusual orange color closer to the normal red but they returned to normal almost immediately, if anything it was a sign that the creature had understood her.

Sitting in front of her the strangely obedient Grimm looked at her and completely stilled its movements, clearly investing its full attention on her.

"Okay, so, I'm not sure how this is gonna go but I gotta figure out what to do with you, not to mention at the very least you are a groundbreaking bit of… I dunno, science? Whatever, I'm going to keep you around here and if you behave well enough I'll get another huntress friend of mine to keep an eye on you when I'm on the job, got it?"

Still staring stoically at her she was beginning to wonder if the creature was truly intelligent enough to understand her before its whole body ever so slightly stiffened for a moment before it lightly nodded at her words.

"Ok then, in the meantime I need some sleep and if you haven't killed me up to this point you probably won't now, get in my bedroom, I need to lock the door so you don't get out." Gesturing towards her room the Grimm got up and slowly meandered into her room as slowly as it could before stopping in the entrance and just sniffing at the room.

Seeing what it was doing a light dusting of red adorned her cheeks, "Stop sniffing! I get I'm not the cleanest person!" Shoving the Beowulf aside to get into the room she began rapidly picking up various discarded garments and the like, even as the Grimm attempted to get on the bed.

Seeing it's attempts Yola quickly put a stop to them, "Oh no, none of that, you may have done a decent job of keeping me warm in those caves but that doesn't fly here, your claws will shred my bed, into the corner for you!" Pointing at a corner the Beowulf slunk into it before curling up like any normal dog might do.

Eyes lingering in the odd beast Yola wondered if this is what owning a dog might be like before shaking her head lightly, closing her door and locking it, she doubted the creature had the dexterity necessary with those claws to click the small door lock open, which meant she would hear it ripping the door open if it tried to escape.

Changing into a night gown she found at the base of her bed she slid into the partially made bed, intent on getting some sleep before exploring the oddities she had been forced, by herself, kinda, to keep, glancing up she saw it in the corner, breathing deeply like how she imagined a dog would.

Her head dropping to her pillow once more she thought on that concept of it being like a dog, maybe every now and then odd Grimm are born and the only reason humans haven't come across them is because they are culled by the other Grimm around them?

That would explain why the Alpha had been fighting other Grimm, actually, that explained a lot, like why it hadn't killed them, but it probably had killed people before?

Her thought becoming more abstract as she began lulling herself to sleep she thought on how she would refer to the Alpha, or, more immediately, her new roommate.

Well, it was friendly and mellow, its eyes were a duller, less colorful version of a normal Grimm's, even its bone plating wasn't quite a perfect white, it had looked to incredibly washed out while she saw it in her grey space it was practically black and white.

That's it, perhaps, she would call it… Grey, that'll do, a simple name, one a dog would be able to have, not to mention it described it perfectly. Wasn't that the name of the guy... the guy in the cave? Oh well, whatever.

Her mouth lightly opening she whispered out the last of her thoughts, half intending on the creature in the corner to hear her, "Grey, I'll call you Grey, goodnight Grey…" and so she whisked off into sleep.

Opening its eyes the Alpha almost felt like copying that ridiculous expression of smiling, ignoring entirely the impossibility of doing so with its anatomy being what it is.

After helping the female huntress the Alpha had seen an opportunity, one it wished desperately to see to fruition, it understood that humans weren't to be trusted but at this point it was quite obvious that its Grimm brethren were not exactly welcoming either and one day it would get an unpleasant surprise in the form of an older Grimm.

Therefore the only thing it could think to do was to infiltrate the one place the Grimm could not go, the settlements of the humans, after all, the hunters and huntresses it had met so far had been mediocre at best at finding it, they didn't seem to be any better at tracking it than any normal animal, worse, in fact, for the most part.

This first step so far had gone very well, it had endeared the huntress to one of its Grimm, one of the ones that had been around for a while, the oldest one that was still with it, it had worked so well that even though it had been there, guiding the actions of the Beowulf it was still surprised at the humans acceptance of it.

Nevertheless even though it had worked phenomenally it also brought about another annoyance, specifically the humans had found its hiding place and had started a full raid, though the attack was halted by the fact none of the humans wanted to actually enter the temple where they would face almost certain death.

Instead they had set up outside, content to wait for what the Alpha assumed was Hunter support, though why there were no hunters with a search party was beyond it, evidently a human thing it hadn't figured out yet.

There it sat, staring out the entrance of the temple, observing the situation outside, occasionally meeting eyes with the camped guards on the large stone path causing them to rapidly pull their weapons up and begin firing, missing almost every shot, the few that hit doing little more than annoying the hide and armor of the large creature.

It did at least have its back-up plan running full bore, quite literally actually, a large number of Beowulves were tunneling through the rock slowly towards the top of the cliff towards escape and safety, leaving things to chance may have been its method but that didn't mean it couldn't think ahead.

Closing its eyes it focused on Grey, the newly named Beowulf that followed the Huntress Yola, directing its motions and choices to better suit the goal the Alpha strove for, or at least, give the Huntress less of a reason to try and return here with a large group of hunters.

It understood its strength well enough, a single Hunter was dangerous enough, especially if they all had the power that Yola did, after all, even by herself Yola was incredibly dangerous, angering a group of Yola like beings did not bode well for its continued existence.

Yet even in the single day Grey had been gone it had already garnered some decent information, or at least useful information for that plan, there was another Huntress, a friend of Yola's, who would be looking after Grey to make sure it didn't do anything while Yola was off doing whatever it is she does.

Another being that wouldn't kill Grey on sight was a positive direction and one which made it consider human aesthetics for a while and how they might factor into this plan.

Humans found different things pleasing or otherwise to the eye and the Alpha had noted that Yola had referred to Grey as a dog, or mutt many times, perhaps in an attempt to familiarize the terrifying creature.

While the Alpha could do little about this now, Grey was a developed creature after all, it began considering on how it might change the form of its pack but decided it didn't have the means to do so, it was always unconscious when new pack members came from the Shadows, not much to modify there.

Lost in its musings it failed to notice an incoming threat until it struck home, right on the Alpha's shoulder, looking down at the object it found a perfectly straight branch, or more likely, a pole of some sort, much like a spear, yet without the metal tip which would have made the attack actually injure it.

Looking up in confusion the Alpha saw the reason why the weapon resembled a spear, standing just outside the makeshift camp was Yola, twisting the head off another broom, likely to throw at it again.

Unsettling itself the Alpha moved to the cave entrance, making the already uncomfortable guards tense even further, weapon held in either a vice-like unmoving grip or a shaking, inexperienced grip depending on the individual.

"Hey! King of the Cave! I know you understand me so howsabout we have a nice little chat, there are a few people here who have been chomping at the bit to tear ya apart but I guess my testimony yesterday may have redeemed you in the eyes of the science types, so get over here!" Yola shouted out with authority, her words radiating confidence in front of the guards.

Growling lightly the Alpha considered what it had learned of gestures and point a single razor sharp claw at Yola then another at the ground in front of it, attempting to convey its preference for her being on its territory rather than the other way around.

Yola saw the gesture and then stepped back into the barricaded area, it could still see a small part of the material covering her left arm so she had just stepped out of sight it seemed, perhaps she was talking to another, perhaps those hunters she mentioned.

Stepping back out Yola shrugged then grabbed her spear and flourished it before walking forward, perhaps this wouldn't be quite so bad it thought right before she stopped halfway between the two groups and stayed.

So she wanted this to be on neither of their turfs, unfortunately that was still to her advantage due to the nature of the weaponry of the group at her back, namely that it was ranged, dangerous at a distance, they didn't want the Alpha near them anymore than the Alpha wanted to fight them by throwing rocks.

The Alpha considered for a long while, long enough that Yola began to fidget uncomfortably, perhaps she had promised her superiors that it would be cooperative? Fine then, she would get her meeting outside the cave, outside but certainly not halfway.

Stepping out the Alpha was pleased by the renewed quivering of the forces behind the Huntress, why were they out here if a Grimm frightened them so much? That would only attract more, pointless and useless, but then again, a small part of its mind remarked, that's what humans were.

Eventually the Alpha's slow walk forward stopped at about a third the distance where it then settled on its haunches, unwilling to traverse any further and quite content to draw this situation out, after all, any Grimm that came across this even would be attacking the humans, not it for a change, plus the extra time for the burrowers in the cave to get their job done.

Yola seemed conflicted, she glanced back at the barricades behind her before steeling herself again and walking forward to meet at the distance the Alpha felt much safer at.

Stopping before the towering beast Yola lightly coughed into her fist before looking up, her features schooled to reveal nothing, "My superiors would like to talk, do you have any means of communicating with them?"

There it was again, that strange feeling that made the huge Grimm want to smile like a human, yes, this would work, this would work perfectly, the only remaining thing it needed, a means of communication, and the humans would provide it just to figure it out, it had learned much from the scientists and researchers of its previous prison and the need to communicate but not the means to do so had been impressed on the presence, and therefore itself.

Tapping its claws on the ground slightly rhythmically as it had taken to doing ever since it learned of the concept of songs and music from the villagers of the village near the research site it shook its head side to side, conveying its inability to communicate.

Yola looked slightly glum about this until she saw what the Alpha was beginning to carve on the ground, letters, they were letters of their alphabet, not in any order, but it was showing her that it had the ability to communicate with them should it be helped to learn.

Yola's expression turned pensive for a moment before she suddenly turned and ran back to the barricade, frightening more than a few trigger happy guards to fire a few rounds at the Alpha who simply tucked its head down to prevent actual injury but otherwise didn't move.

Yola was yelling at the guards but her excitement forced her onwards into the barricade, towards her mysterious benefactors with what it suspected was a proposal to teach it writing, it knew many of the components and had the drive to learn after all, it couldn't be too difficult.

This day was turning better and better, instead of a step forward in its plan this was more akin to a leap forward, completely circumnavigating many parts of the plan entirely. That uncanny urge to smile returned, this would do nicely, indeed.


	16. Chapter 16

**I think I missed a day, but I'm on vacation and can't be bothered to check dates and times, anywho, thank ye all kindly for reading and here is the next chapter! Ah, and by the way, dates and times are somewhat... unavailable in RWBY as of this time, aside from the Great war, therefore I will be taking some license with them.**

 **Sergeant peace: Very much yes, the Alpha has unfortunately found that humans are confusing and finding its target may be very difficult, The Intruder is still the end goal but a lot of intermediary goals have appeared. Darn humans make everything harder than it needs to be.**

 **Guest: You as well!**

 **Yesboss21: Once I get to the Great war then I can begin color names but in the meantime the world is starting to go down the anti-expression route that will lead to said war, names are therefore likely going to be very utilitarian, though the Alpha is going to get a name from someone who still has some expression, if all works out, next chapter actually.**

 **M: I do love me some imagination, thanks!**

~I do not own RWBY

Chapter 16

Yola was still unsure about this entire situation, sure, she had vouched for the Alpha Beowulf on the other side of that barricade but she didn't expect that the idiots higher up took her statements so seriously.

Even now she was busy trying to come to a middle ground with an officer who looked like a child looking forward to their birthday, clearly he thought this could be a massive benefit to his position if he actually managed to… what? Make friends with a Grimm?

"If he wants to learn then by all means, we can make the effort, but we can't really do it out here very easily, unless…" that contemplative gaze of his made Yola all the more comfortable, this was a man who clearly enjoyed scheming and this entire situation screamed of advantages to be taken.

"Sir, while I don't think it would be a terrible idea to invest a little effort and see if it pays off later I'm not quite as confident about…" Almost immediately the officer held his hand up, cutting her off.

"I appreciate your opinion Huntress Yola but I can assure you I will maintain an adequate level of caution, my primary safety concern is alleviated by your presence, you will be able to fight a single Alpha beowulf, correct? Especially with guardsman backup?" Making her feel both bad about herself and questioning her ability at the same time, lovely man, this one.

Continuing on as if he hadn't just questioned her ability to do her one job, "I feel as though there are two options I would like to entertain, the first, request it to move to a… hidden… location nearer to Vale, where we may put instructors in less danger or…"

The officer paused before looking up at her with a sharktooth grin, "We have someone who is capable of moving about Grimmlands teach it how to read and write."

Yola didn't need an education or a lifetime of social skills to understand who this man was referring to, he had every intention of throwing her to the Grimm, as if she hadn't been more or less held prisoner by the creature mere days ago.

Putting on a neutral mask Yola let out an internal sigh, he was more or less threatening her to go along with his plan and she could either go along with it or risk herself even further.

"Very well sir, we'll go with your plan then, you can rely on me to relay it." Turning she gritted her teeth at the infuriating man, political machinations were never helpful when it came to the Grimm, why should this odd situation be any different?

"Yola? I don't believe I said which plan we were going with? Please don't attempt to assume, it's unbecoming." She could feel the grin deepen on the face of the… the… Forcing her emotions down as she had been taught she turned.

"You are correct sir, I don't believe we had definitively determined which plan to go with, please do tell." Putting on her best poker face again she hoped he would finish already, his useless machinations gave her a headache.

"Ah, I intended to request the Alpha move nearer to the walls, I had a perfect place in mind after all, there are some Faunas refugees from some town that have set up some hovels south of the Agricultural district, near them is a somewhat unassuming cave, a perfect place to hide this creature and its pack."

Yola lightly dipped her head, "Very well sir, I will inform the Alpha, I think I know the location you speak of, would you like me to guide him there?" Almost done, almost done.

"That sounds like an excellent idea, I'll have the guards pack up here and we'll be off, tell the Alpha to expect a tutor within a week, ah, and if it should feel the thirst for human flesh if it could simply use the local Faunas as opposed to anyone important, especially the tutor. Thank you Yola."

Turning, the officer began barking orders at the guards, clearly intent on being away from this place as swiftly as possible, filled with political machinations he may be, but he was still an officer in a world filled with lethal Grimm, he probably didn't want to be out here any more than he had to.

Stepping out of the barricade she walked to the Alpha, considering what to say, she didn't really care for the Faunas, no one really did, they tended to muck up their environments but she didn't really want them to die just because she personally disliked them.

All too soon she arrived at the Alpha, "My superiors have decided they would be willing to send you tutors to teach you our language, specifically the ability to read and write, however these tutors would be regular humans and therefore unable to make the trek into the Grimmlands where you are located."

The Alpha lifted its head slightly, considering her words, "They have, however, considered on a solution to this, there is a cave south of the agricultural district which would be able to fit you and your pack, would not be too far from Vale and… there would be nearby Faunas who you may be able to ingratiate yourself to for further learning if you so chose."

Sighing slightly in relief she looked for the reaction from the Alpha, it still wasn't looking at her, instead looking skyward, contemplating, clearly it was considering the offer but she hoped it was considering acceptance, otherwise she would be relegated to helping it learn a language, a task she was underqualified for, didn't want to do, and would force her back into a situation that was strangely terrifying to her, even though nothing really happened.

At least they managed to free the guards it had previously captured early in negotiations, which had been a relief, it didn't seem to care and had released them nigh immediately, no more than a request from her side facilitating it.

Finally the Alpha shifted, looking down at her again the Alpha nodded its head once, all the acceptance she needed, "Perfect! If you can get your pack ready, we can head out soon, preferably tailing the main force so we don't come across any other Grimm and so that we can avoid the eyes of any humans."

The Alpha stood back to its normal height and almost immediately Beowulves began coming from the cave, but more distressingly were the ones that climbed their way from the side of the suspended stone pathway, had they been hiding beneath the path, hanging so far off the ground they would have been little more than black and white paste if they had fallen?

Smiling nervously Yola began to understand that it probably would have overwhelmed the guardsmen at her back and forced her to fight while being attacked from both sides, the Alpha hadn't taken any chances it seemed.

The guardsmen were clearly unnerved as well as several of them immediately freaked out and fired on the Beowulves coming from around them, the response, thankfully was absolutely nothing, the Grimm simply ignored them, choosing to lie down where they pulled themselves up from, merely observing their attackers.

This quickly stopped the frightened guardsmen, yet not before they had killed almost ten Beowulves, at least she could have relied on them to have held out for a few moments Yola grimly thought.

The guardsmen began nervously chuckling to themselves to restore their weakened nerves, the corpses of the Grimm around them beginning to dust, having not been killed by Aura wakened individuals it would be a while before they fully dissolved.

Yola decided to walk next to the Alpha to lower the stress of the guardsmen, even as her instincts screamed at her to stab, dodge, cloak herself, anything, all because of the monster she walked next to.

She could tell it lightened its normal gait to compensate for her much more human walking speed, she wasn't sure if she appreciated that or wanted it to move faster to get this over with.

Regardless, the guardsmen had sped up vastly, they clearly didn't like the idea of having to walk next to, or goodness forbid, behind the mob of Beowulves and therefore packed that camp up in record time.

She even got a glimpse of the officer who started this ridiculous event, his mouth flapping as quickly as it could go, he may have been the reason why everything got packed up so efficiently and swiftly, his face indicated the same thing as everyone else there, he didn't want to be near the Grimm.

Snorting Yola got her amusement at her higher ups suffering, served him right, maybe this will make him understand what he was dealing with a little better, give him a healthy respect for the Grimm which he clearly didn't deal with enough.

Steeling her nerves so she wouldn't be a nervous wreck the whole trek she looked once more at the Grimm next to her, taking in everything about it, walking on all fours he stood about seven and a half feet tall, slightly larger than the average Alpha as she recalled, standing tall this thing would be enormous.

Its body had more bone plates than it had seen on any of the common Grimm, aside from perhaps a boarbatusk, the bone plates focusing on its spine, neck, shoulders and chest, they were placed in such a way that performing an execution type attack that most hunters and huntresses were fond of would be difficult, perhaps that was why it had survived so long?

It's mask was the final piece that drew her attention, she hadn't seen many Grimm with battle wounds before, they were usually either dead, with all the wounds that entailed, or alive, uninjured, therefore seeing the damaged mask of the Alpha made her realize that this one could actually be easily identified in the future.

The first most unique bit that underneath the right eye socket in the mask was a teardrop shape of missing bone, reminding her of a jesters mask ever so slightly, the other eye socket had a thin slit about and below, looking almost like something had stabbed its eye, or perhaps an arrow, considering how thing the slit was.

The rest of the battle damages looked much more similar to scars she saw on older huntsmen, the traditional scars of a Beowulf's claws, so this creature had been fighting other Grimm, and probably for a while judging by the number of light claw marks near the upper jaw of the bone mask.

Having satisfied her ability to be able to describe the mask to anyone else she realized they had made better time than she had thought, they were almost back to the outer perimeter of the Vale hunter guarded region.

It may have been called that all that really meant was ever couple of days a hunter team would split up and wander about, slaying whatever Grimm may have made their way into the area, it wasn't a perfect sweep, it was more of a lazy walk around the area looking for Grimm and slaying any to be found.

She checked her schedule, suddenly worried about the possibility of a hunter wandering across them and wreaking havoc with their tentative setup with the Alpha.

Her schedule looked open and she noted no one was slated for patrol that day, well, no one on the south side of Vale at least, that avoided a major wrench in those plans then, thank goodness.

Buckling down now that they would no longer be following the guardsmen group she focused and began listening and observing for anything or anyone which might cause trouble to their little procession, this would be a long trek…

Several hours later Yola felt as though her poor nerves had been fried, she had avoided at least 2 patrols of Beowulves, a group of teenagers that really shouldn't have been so far out, doing things she frowned upon heavily, not to mention had to avert her eyes from, honestly, children these days, she hadn't been that bad when she was younger had she? And finally a group of guards tormenting a Faunas woman.

That last one had been very annoying for her to get around, well, not for her, but for the Alpha, for some reason it seemed very interested in this interaction and seemed determined to look closer, observing what was happening.

After the Guards had finally tired of… after the guards had left the Alpha finally got up and walked over to the woman, this had set off her alarm bells something fierce but she had been unable to do anything that would jeopardize the mission, the woman had her eyes closed and was crying, hopefully she wouldn't notice the Alpha.

The Alpha sat next to her and merely stared at her, it didn't seem to be doing anything, until all at once the Alpha raised its claw and stabbed it straight into the back of the curled up woman's head, her face frozen in its sadness.

The shock Yola went through at that moment terrified her, what was she doing? This was a monster, it had just killed someone right in front of her and she couldn't do anything, both because of the officer who dictated her actions and because she knew she couldn't defeat this creature by herself.

The Alpha pulled its claw from the woman, her tense body flopping onto its back from where it had been curled in the fetal position, the Alpha then lifted her body up, opened its jaws… turning around Yola ran to a nearby fallen tree and emptied her stomach over the side of it.

Of course she had seen it before, perhaps not so… clearly but she had seen people die to the Grimm before, brutally, horrendously, the Grimm killed like the monsters they were, but something about the way this woman was killed and then… it stirred that primal fear within her.

The Alpha could taste it, the taste of pain, suffering, even hatred, it was disgusting to it, this woman tasted of all the emotions that the Grimm so loved to feast on, but to the Alpha they were disgusting, the presence provided feedback about how delicious it was which offset the disgust somewhat but the Alpha still almost regretted eating the woman.

When he first saw the woman he could smell the emotions coming off her, they were nearly tangible and its instincts made the smell all the more delectable, yet as it watched the interactions between the woman and the guards it could the smell becoming rotten in its nostrils, even as the presence informed it that smell was becoming sweeter.

When the guards had left the Alpha saw the woman curl up, water coming from her closed eyes and it felt… something stirring, the presence merely stood by, offering no information about the situation whatsoever.

Settling down next to her the Alpha felt the emotions deepen, so close to the woman it felt the sadness deeply then something happened that it had not experienced before, a flash of an image appeared, a man.

The image of the man was colored with security and something pink, but it burned away almost immediately and the image changed to a very different yet the same man, missing an arm, eyes filled with pain, despair in the form of a Grimm, or perhaps the opposite ripping open his chest.

The images flashed to small ones, they had rabbit ears like the woman sitting next to the Alpha, they were also colored in something pink but like with the last image it flashed to the same setting despair and sadness coloring the ending of the two small ones.

This woman wanted something, the images came faster, a black image tinged with desperation, filled with some amount of anger, an image of a wall of hope turning taller and denying her that hope, then finally a gate, a flicker of hope once more, two guards, the hope flicker and die.

The woman wanted something and the Alpha could see it, she wanted to return to the Shadows, where she would not be denied hope anymore, where she could see that man and those two small ones again.

Almost immediately the Alpha could feel a strange stirring and before it knew it the deadly blades of its claws had given her that release, there was none of the pain that it normally felt from killing humans, and in fact it felt rejuvenated, as though it had killed a strong Grimm.

The presence made itself known again and requested the Alpha consume the corpse, the Alpha had already intended to do so but had hesitated, it had learned that humans treat their bodies with some care, yet the presence had not guided it poorly yet and it therefore ate the woman.

The taste was horrible, truly disgusting, yet it could feel something shift inside itself, some center within it and the presence seemed to shift into it, had it done something wrong? The presence reassuringly caressed its mind before the world shifted and changed to the indistinct fog of dreams.

Yola turned back, hoping to see… she wasn't sure what she hoped to see but she hoped it was something to settle the guilt in her stomach.

The Alpha was standing next to where the woman was, its face to the sky, the lights of its eyes gone, still as a statue, the curiosity of the situation momentarily settled her stomach and she faced the creature, wondering what it was doing.

After several minutes she began wondering if it had fallen asleep or something similar, however at the moment she decided to stop leaning on the tree at her back the Alpha stirred.

Dropping its head down the Alpha looked at Yola and at that moment all the misgivings she had harbored erupted again, the creature in front of her no longer seemed amiable like it had previously.

Beginning to back up she noticed one final detail, the eyes of deep red that all Grimm had, the eyes that the Alpha had up until a few minutes ago were different, no, the glow that burned into her soul was orange, the same color as her Beowulf, Grey and what that meant she had no idea.

"Lets… uh, lets get moving then huh big guy? No time like the present, you had your snack so lets get going quick then!" Yola darted off in the direction she had been leading previously, running like she had a pack of Grimm on her tail, which she did, Yola only had one thought, "Those poor Faunas…"


	17. Chapter 17

**Ha! Wow that was stressful! as far as excuses go the last two months feel worthy, that being said I was in a bit of a direction funk, the story board was written up to this point but I had gone no further, I can thankfully say that has been resolved.**

 **On a very related note part of the reason for this is me looking at my old story, 'Many Millenia Lost' and wondering if I couldn't do the same seeing as the reason for me stopping that one was the same as this. Plus I maaaay have decided that a story I had been sitting on for a while now is good enough to go, or at least, see the light of day.**

 **Lotsa little stuff, tldr: writers block, am back.**

Chapter 17

Yola liked to think the Alpha liked the cave, but then again, she liked to think it wasn't a murderous monster with no empathy that would as soon kill her as look at her. She still wasn't sure on that one.

Nevertheless she had settled the Alpha in and even bothered to inform the local Faunas that there was a breach in the defenses nearby that they had cleared but Grimm could still get through, therefore to keep an eye out and not go near that area.

Yes, she had done her duty as far as she could, kinda, at least far enough that she was still following orders and could at least sleep a little at night without guilty dreams at all moments.

As she opened the door to her apartment she remembered she had left a problem behind, specifically a huntress friend who had been tasked with not killing whatever she found in her room that she needed watched.

On the other side of the door was a woman sitting on top of a wardrobe with a gladius pointed at Grey, her Beowulf, though the Grimm itself had curled up on the rug in the center of the room and seemed content to simply rest there.

"Yola! You're here!" Relief showed in the untightening of her friend's muscles who leapt straight at her, landing in front of her and grabbing her shoulders with a firm grip, "And you have some explaining to do…" She growled quietly.

"Ehehehe, um, tell you what, I'll tell you tomorrow and you don't tell anyone about the nice new doggy I got recently, sound good? Maybe over some breakfast?" The woman clearly looked stressed out and a good night's rest would help her be more… reasonable.

"You better come up with your excuses because I'm holding you to that." Huffing slightly to herself she walked out the door pulling it closed with her, the loud slam evidence of her departure.

"That went well, now how am I going to explain you…" Looking over the cause of her problem Grey slowly stretched out and walked over to her bedroom door, showing surprising dexterity in its hands by managing to open the door without slicing the door knob to pieces.

"Huh. That doesn't make me feel better, you being able to open the door. Oh well, sleep it is, by the way, your boss got settled down in a nice town which I really, really hope he doesn't kill everyone in." Her worries thrown now successfully at her new 'dog' Yola threw her clothes in a disorganized pile at the base of her bed.

Staring at the large pile of various garments she wondered about the need to do laundry eventually before falling onto her bed, the quiet plodding of her pet indicating it's settling into the corner again.

She really hoped those Faunas would be okay, she would really prefer not to be a murderer by proxy if she could help it, or at least a mass murderer, she could handle a few more 'disappearances' she WAS a huntress after all, dirty jobs from the government were expected.

Being the brutal arm of the government made her feel like the bad guy pretty much at all times while on the job, subjugation, terror management, making certain people who were problems go away, not the kindest job out there but it was hers.

Sleep came and with it came the dreams again, with the horrible light trying to eat her and the warmth of darkness comforting her thoughts gradually turned to the pleasant dreams she normally had.

This village was nice the presence considered using its newly found faculties, perhaps here it could find the source of the plague that damaged its host, these emotions, they were already too tied into its host to remove but that didn't mean they couldn't be managed better.

Ever since the first time the presence knew something was wrong with its host, it wasn't sure but it was reasonably sure that this was not normal for a Grimm, it had thoughts, it felt things, the presence just made sure that it didn't ruin anything.

But this felt normal to the presence, it being in control, it pushing the body of its host to its utmost, yet even it felt slightly corrupted, like this was not its original purpose, it was there for something else.

It did not like the times its host had killed humans, there was something there, humans were different, they left a mark on the Grimm, but none were quite so bad as when its host ate that female human only a day ago.

She had left something more with the Alpha, even more than the human wielding the knives years ago had, she had left herself, more than just a piece and the presence had a task it was to uphold, prevent anything from destroying its host, they were both in here after all even if the presence was quite sure it had no self-preservation instinct on its own.

Therefore it had put the damaged psyche of its charge in recovery, in the back of its own mind, trying to come to terms with its own new… perspective, in the meantime, it had set more limits on the mind in regards to killing humans, every time it killed one bad things happened, so no more of that.

Looking out of the cave it could see the humans beneath going about their business, well, they weren't humans it supposed, simply a variant according to the humans themselves.

Perhaps it would be prudent to begin scouting out the perimeter of its new 'home' and determining if the locals were of any danger whatsoever, it may not have the instincts that its charge had but it could still try to reason things out despite its faculties being ill-equipped for such an endeavor.

It promptly sent out several of its pack to look about the area, though it could feel its pack already feeling unresponsive, somehow they knew that the presence wasn't their Alpha though they still felt something which was likely why they hadn't completely turned feral.

Stepping out the presence began wandering to the town, intent on looking closely at the not-human village, acquiring information, the only thing the presence really excelled at.

Running to the edge and leaping into a tree that it promptly found couldn't hold its weight the presence ungracefully fell to the ground, a mildly muffled yowl coming from it as it face-planted in the ground.

The presence picked itself up, its previous conclusion of not having the instincts of the Alpha appeared to be very correct and promptly noticed it was looking at a group of small… of children that were staring wide eyed at the large Beowulf.

Thinking as quick as it could the presence figured that if it looked not very dangerous they might not immediately give it away and promptly made a light noise it hoped was mournful enough and crouched its body close to the ground.

The children looked incredibly wary but after a little bit of wiggling its conveniently injured leg, emphasizing an injury that was barely a hindrance, the idea of harmlessness seemed to have been partially acquired.

Perhaps the children hadn't been taught about the Grimm yet due to the fact the village was at the edge of defended territory and children easily output fear, it didn't know why they hadn't fled yet but something had piqued their interest and the slightly larger boy with the tall ears on his head also appeared to be convincing the other two out of their fear.

Looking at it the boy called out from a safe distance, "Are you okay? You look hurt, are you hungry?" the few words immediately made the presence know it was safe for the moment and therefore continued the light keening noise it was making hoping they might interact with it more, this was, after all, a chance for finding out something it hadn't had the chance to yet.

The smaller of the two girls walked forward a bit, some scales decorating her face, and slowly reached out her hand to touch its head, curiously enough the presence realized it was a good thing it was in control and not the Alpha as this would have likely resulted in something happening which would frighten the children, given the Alpha's tendency to rely on its instincts.

This could work, it would be slow but it could hide near here and interact with the children over a period of time while using the pack members to find out what was happening in its new territory, it could even provide protection to the village for the time being as an unknown payment for its knowledge it would be gaining.

The girl lightly patted its head and realized that the white was actually something hard, specifically the bone plate of its mask, and only seemed to become more interested, grabbing hold of the various bone plating and spikes.

The last girl, clearly the oldest though apparently not the leader walked over as well, her shorter ears twitching rapidly in response to the situation, looking for any way out, any escape in case everything went wrong.

Seeing the meeker members of his self-titled group approaching and interacting with the creature the boy finally decided he would not be losing out on the interest that came from this odd and quite frightening creature.

"Wonder where he's from, he looks really strong, did he get hurt falling from that tree? Tana, stop poking his claws, you might cut yourself!" the boy quickly tried to micromanage the situation, likely he was the one who rounded up these two and dragged them along on adventures as they seemed used to it and the two promptly stepped away from the claws of the large Beowulf.

The short eared girl, revealing herself to be Tana responded, "I don't think he's from around here, I've never… oh! Wait! I saw something that looked like him in a book a while ago, there were a lot of pictures in it but mum took it away before I could look through too much of it…"

The youngest, who had turned back to them spoke up the moment Tana finished her statement, "I wanna keep him, he's like a big scary horsie and doggy, and every girl should have a horsie, dad said so!"

The boy turned a disapproving frown on the scaled girl, "Oretta your dad just said that cuz he saw a huntress riding a horse once! Besides! Everyone knows that a hero has a white horse and he's kinda white, but more importantly he's big and scary looking, everyone will think I'm the best if I ride him!"

The three's conversation devolved into a pointless argument that rapidly devolved further as they moved off topic, feeling unoccupied the presence dug a shallow hole in the ground so that it might be better hidden from the view of any proper patrols as it had decided it would be here for a while.

"Wolf isn't a good name cuz it isn't a wolf I think, it should be Blackest Night! That would be so cool!" hearing again the arguments of the children the creature lay down in its shallow pit, the top of its head still visible for now so they wouldn't lose it.

"But the name makes no sense and sounds like it would be really annoying to say all the time, he's kinda scary so he should get a name that is cute so everyone isn't scared! Besides Tommy he looks like just the name Night would fit him fine." Tana shot back evidently not pleased with the naming convention but still willing to at least humor the boy, Tommy.

The conversation went on for at least an hour, several times of which the contenders would walk over to the partially entrenched Beowulf and look at him in a pondering manner before going back to talk with the others further.

Out of all the names that had been thrown around the presence considered Fluffy, Bites and Big Mouse to be the worst and made its displeasure shown by lightly growling when the names were brought up, these names would give it no traction whatsoever should any others ever hear them, they were unthreatening or demeaning and it would not have it.

"Okay, we have got con-seign-soos and his name will be… Artal! Cuz it is the long version of Art, a cool name and cuz mom says art is going away but now he's back! And also just like the hunter in the village!"

Grunting its temporary acceptance Artal, or decided it needed get back into its burrow when it heard the sound of rustling behind its little hideaway, the choice being immediately correct as the children address the new individual, "Hi Shelly! We were…"

The youngest girl was promptly elbowed by the boy who apparently understood the idea of a secret and cut her off, the other person clearly didn't really care as she promptly walked past them toward the village, "You're with me tots, get behind me and stop getting so close to the edge of the patrol, the forest is dangerous out there."

The children giggled at their inside joke but followed her nonetheless, sneaking peeks back toward where their not so little secret was hidden, subtly only managing to be applicable because the girl clearly didn't seem to care.

Artal decided the idea of an identity felt proper, not for itself but rather for the Alpha, perhaps it could keep the nickname to discern itself in the future but only if they were to ever interact somehow, in a way that wasn't just the presence being used as a means of knowledge or communication.

Thus the presence deemed itself Art and the Alpha as Artal, perhaps this sense of self would help Artal recover, after all, the damage was dealt to its identity and anchoring this could be a very strong step in the right direction.


	18. Chapter 18

**There we go, I've been resetting my creative spark on top of looking for a nice new job that I like a bit more and may reduce the number of near ulcers. Anyway I will be updating this story again, I posted a few other concept stories that have held my flame for a bit over the last few months.**

 **Have a lovely Morning/Afternoon/Evening Ladies and/or Gentlemen!**

Chapter 18

The past few weeks had been fulfilling Art considered, perhaps it was due to the fact that the children had been bringing it things constantly, a better camouflage it could not think of, various objects strewn about in a small area near some trees, patrols would likely think the area would be safe considering children played there and would patrol around it more but not inside of it.

It could feel its time in the area ending, the children had begun expressing interest in showing others their new weird creature and the possibility others would know of the nature of Art was much higher.

Additionally Art could feel Artal waking, the name it had received was acting as an effective mental anchor as Art originally assumed it would though Art was still worried about the weak presence of the woman and the fact it didn't seem to be going away, instead it seemed to be fusing with that of the knife wielding human and solidifying.

While Art certainly had more knowledge about the mind than Artal did it was also reliant on a sort of mental instinct as opposed to Artal's physical instinct, not that that made sense when it thought about it.

Either way Art decided leaving was the best idea, Artal did not need to awaken surrounded by the village patrols, it needed to recover and figure out its surroundings, Artal was clever but easily overwhelmed, yet again, that was Art's task.

Waiting until night Art snuck out of the perimeter and made its way back to the cave, hoping that it could acquire information from the Beowulves it had left behind to patrol and scout.

Arriving back at the cave Art saw something was wrong, it had felt a sixth sense trying to tell it something but it failed to understand the feeling, that was Artal's area of expertise, Art was not instinctual in that way.

The moment it stepped in the cave it was attacked by several Beowulves, ones it could recognize as part of Artal's pack, why were they attacking? Backing up swiftly Art turned and ran, looking for a more strategic place to hold a fight, the only advantage Art had was the superior physical build that Artal had acquired, fighting in a body Art had only just began to understand would be folly.

Stumbling into a small depression Art turned on its attackers and almost immediately realized how outclassed it was, the pack members arrived nearly immediately and began circling just out of range of the larger Grimm's claws while slowly moving faster and faster.

Artal's pack was a well-trained group and their surrounding of their target only showed off how effective they were, they were used to fighting more powerful Grimm constantly and Art barely even counted in that category.

Deciding the alternative was death Art focused inward searching for Artal and any way to draw it out from the depths of its mind. The quick search brought up nothing other than a slight response to the name it had been given as well as a slight response from the humans.

Not wanting to use the humans for anything Art decided it had no choice and brought the human psyche to the forefront, hoping to entice Artal to mentally return to where it belonged. Already it could feel the confusion the human perspective brought about, the fear also appeared from being surrounded by Beowulves.

Right as the Beowulves struck out the human fears peaked and did exactly what Art was hoping, drew Artal out fully, the immediate result of which was an open palm slap at the attacking Beowulf on the right and a headbutt to the one on the left.

The Grimm nearly immediately began backing off after sensing that the creature they were attacking was their Alpha and immediately began whining while lying down, one even turned on its back in an action that the human presence found apparently funny.

Still feeling foggy and confused as to the situation Artal simply growled before turning toward the pack members and requesting them to show it to the cave, already it could feel information trickling in from the presence, or Art, as it had named itself.

It wasn't sure why it had felt so horrible from consuming the human woman but something had gone wrong and even now it could feel that combination of a deep hunger as well as the revulsion towards consuming humans.

Arriving at the cave Artal set about contacting and learning what all the pack members had learned as well as recalling them to the cave, the place hadn't been improved in any way, it was still a small but somewhat deep cave and it still looked natural, completely unacceptable as far as the Alpha was concerned.

Disseminating the idea it had for the cave amongst the pack Artal stepped out of the cave and made its plans to return to Vale shortly, after all the Beowulf that had been left in Yola's care had been effectively unattended for the last several days, hopefully nothing had happened to it or else whatever information it would have acquired would be lost.

Looking through the eyes of Grey was startling as the first thing Artal saw was a pile of clothes that Grey was presumably rifling through, having nothing better to do until the rest of the pack arrived it decided to decipher the information Grey had acquired as well as watch through its eyes.

The last week had been rough on Yola, her friend had suckered her for more than the originally stated amount of meals draining her spending cash, the military still wanted her on standby to deal with their new pet project and she therefore had to be ready to go at any time and finally her new resident was just plain annoying.

It had started out simple enough, Grey was big, he had claws he couldn't retract that were eternally sharp and he had a penchant for being in the way at all times. Now, Yola was able to be calm when she had to but when Grey was rolling through her clothes (that she really should have put away by now) and had one of her bras in its mouth chewing on it, evidently finding the combination of cloth and rigid material to be perfect for it, AGAIN, that was all she could take.

Her neighbors had complained to the apartment manager, and looking back she was a little bit on the loud side but she had very few non-sports bras, she was a huntress for goodness sake she didn't need nor want to wear a normal bra very often but she had them when she needed them.

That just made it all the more annoying because in hindsight she may have needed to go clothes shopping, her clothing was getting a little… old on almost all occasions, and perhaps she should focus on spending her money on clothes at some point like a… normal girl, bleh.

Yola considered for a while that Grey would be fine while she went out for a while and eventually decided that it would be fine, he seemed smart enough after all, "Grey, stay here I'll be out for a bit."

Deciding it had stopped caring about the life of its so called undercover operative Artal focused outward again just in time to see a Faunas patrol extend far further out than it should have been doing, dangerously near its cave.

Deciding that now would be a chance to force a form of acceptance seeing as this village was not dangerous enough to pose a major threat and the local government had already decided it was more interested in observing or working with Artal.

Leaping into the trees Artal put in all the effort it could to not break the branches and sneak up on the small unsuspecting patrol members from the village. A show of force and good intentions perhaps, it could pull it off, there were only five after all.

A few positioned pack members and a few minutes of stalking later and Artal felt confident enough in its ability to take down the patrol, the five members were armed with an assortment of weaponry but none of them looked exceptionally dangerous, that is to say, nothing like those transforming weapons it had read were in development now.

The patrol group continued traveling for several more minutes before they stopped to talk to each other and look around the area they stopped. Creeping up in a nearby bush Artal got as close as it could manage before it reached out and pulled a scaled woman into the bush where a pack member was waiting to pin her down.

The moment Artal grabbed the woman the rest of the group realized something was wrong, likely due to the ears on the rest of the group, this response was a testament to their task as patrol members but it also led them to look away from the Beowulves positioned opposite to Artal.

Leaping out from the trees and bushes the pack members landed on the Faunas patrol, had they been hunters the result would have been different but these people didn't seem to have any training further than what may have been necessary to unlock their Aura.

One woman seemed to have actually acquired a semblance as the pack member on top of her was suddenly skewered by a spike of some metal, the unfortunate Grimm was shoved to the side as it started to dissolve slowly, the woman underneath scrambling to her feet holding a black metal spike.

Curious as to how she managed to kill its pack member while restrained with a weapon that should have been put away Artal walked over to her making her eyes widen significantly but hold the spike in front of her pointing straight up, curiously enough the spike was melting down and was covering her hand in only a moment.

Evidently she could change the shape of metal, Artal had no idea why she thought it was a good idea to shift the metal she held into a solid glove but decided that if she could kill a Beowulf then she deserved its attention.

Slowly walking toward her the woman put her hand out before deciding to jump at the Alpha while screaming, the attack was unexpected but far too slow and done from outside of an effective lunge range, Artal simply brought its large paw down on her, keeping its claws as stretched backwards as its own anatomy would allow it.

As its paw came in contact with the woman her other hand that had been clinched in a fist also came around and threw what appeared to be black sand toward the larger creatures face, instantly Artal understood the danger of what she had tried, unfortunately for her even this clever idea was rather useless against the armored creature.

The small metal spike jabbed into the rapidly closed eyelids of the Grimm and it could feel them stick slightly into the outer surface, unfortunately for her she didn't capitalize on her extremely momentary blinding of the Grimm and continued her attack into the large paw which had already been set to intercept her.

Artal felt its paw collide with the metal fist and promptly shoved forward, knocking the woman to the ground and then pinning her before blinking repeatedly to get the metal spikes out of its eyelids to unfortunate results, they weren't really coming out.

Growling in annoyance Artal grabbed the metal spike and threw it to another Beowulf which promptly put it in the pack of one of the patrol members, she would get it back in case it was special to her or something, Artal felt as if it needed to make sure of things like this now, though it wasn't sure why.

Heading to the Faunas village Artal used the vision of its pack to guide itself right up to the little sign over the entrance where it promptly walked in as if it owned the place, Artal had taken some precautions in regards to the expected fear and had brought the rest of the pack along to make sure no rogue Grimm made their way into the village during the following events.

The eyes of the villagers were on the humongous Grimm amidst them and they quickly backed to the far end of the village calling for the stronger individuals amongst them to protect them, the response of which was reassuring to Artal.

In only a minute seven individuals had formed a line between the defenseless of the village and the intruding Grimm, these seven had on extremely patchwork armor though their weapons were of good quality, most of which were spears, likely due to the foolishness of fighting any Grimm at anything close to claw range.

Deciding that dealing with the spikes in its eyes first Artal sat down in front of them and gestured to its eyes several times with as much emphasis as it could with its understanding of human body language which… it felt it had a very good grasp on for some reason.

After a few minutes there came an exclamation from among the civilians in the back, specifically from a group that Artal felt was familiar until the memories of Art partially intruded and it realized that those three were Tana, Oretta and Tommy it believed

"Artal! What are you doing here? We thought you disappeared cuz it's scary in the forest!" The boy came running forward with the two girls following while looking slightly uneasy but still there. The armed adults promptly stopped them and Artal leaned its head down so that they could get a better look at its eyes.

"But he looks like his eyes are hurt!" Tommy couldn't seem to drop his voice and the adults were becoming more agitated, likely realizing that the longer this standoff went the more Grimm that would be attracted to the entire situation.

Eventually Artal decided to actually show its main point for arriving there and had the pack drag the captured patrol team before releasing them to the others there then pointing at its eyes again, setting up a repertoire with them would be a decent first step, if they knew that Artal was out there it would be perfect, not to mention the children had given Artal's name to the villagers making it more relatable.

After the tense stare off continuing for a while longer Artal had its pack members leave in an obvious manner, showing that it was conceding to them before again gesturing at its eyes, eventually the village defenders had the metal manipulating woman walk over to Artal, it would have highly preferred someone who didn't have the ability to make these small shards so much worse but this was for the purpose of diplomacy it kept telling itself.

Thankfully the woman seemed to understand that her life was very much over if she did something to attack the Grimm further, having completed her task and having recovered her metal the woman hightailed it back to the defensive line.

Turning Artal began walking out of the village before deciding it needed a way to identify its pack to them for the future, a signal perhaps, something simple that would get across that they were not the same as the other Grimm.

Stopping, the Grimm called its pack members to it, as many as it could have fit in the village and then raised its claw to its masked face and tapped a single claw to the forehead twice then pointed to the rest of its pack who then mirrored the action of tapping their claw to their forehead.

With that Artal felt it had successfully showed that its pack was different and this would put doubt, even the slightest amount, in them killing or attacking the members of its pack, it could work on this for now, this was all it needed for now.

Walking back to its own cave Artal was feeling quite well, for some reason it had been craving interaction with these Faunas, any intelligent being really, but it wanted to be around them for some reason ever since… well, it had become stronger recently at least.

It all hardly mattered though as this would get it further towards its goal… Its goal, The Intruder… was he even still alive? Artal suddenly felt weak, the tight feeling in its stomach slowing its steps, did it even need to keep looking for him? It felt it needed to, so desperately it needed to, perhaps it could ask someone who knew about semblances if there were any that might compel this sort of action from the large Grimm.


	19. Chapter 19

**And so the Great War begins its initial stages, unfortunately the RWBY timeline is kinda meh, therefore I'm using plenty of assumptions. Therefore stepping into the Great War will be happening now, the introduction of color names will slowly begin, in addition to the appearance of some people we know, in addition to some predecessors to those we know.**

 **And Away we go!**

Chapter 19

The weeks following the first major contact with the Faunas village had gone quite well for Artal, Yola had come a few times with a large number of books and the tutor, a small man named Neil who wore something over his eyes, had been working on hammering a proper knowledge of the local language into its head.

The language was heavily based in a militaristic feeling, Neil did indicate it had started out as a series of tribal languages that had probably been spread by someone due to the consistencies between the language variants across continents, and apparently even a country in the north, Mantle, had a near exact variant to the one heard here in Vale.

Additionally, the villagers had actually lightened up on the attacking of Artal's pack members, they still attacked but it was more to the purpose of getting the pack members to leave rather than to kill them, not that they had great success before anyway, the pack was quite competent and the villagers were far from being hunters after all.

The introduction of language to Artal also allowed it to understand a few nuances of language it had not fully grasped, such as the concept of jokes which Yola was very explicit on should not be brought up, she was quite pointed about not mentioning jokes or anything of humor to any human or Faunas of power.

Artal had been giving the Faunas village sufficient berth over these weeks, letting them feel a bit more comfortable, putting in the effort to keep the border of their own patrols safe, if they didn't see any Grimm other than its own then that was all for the better, though it had gone out of its way to show a few patrol members of the pack fighting other Grimm.

The value associated with its pack had hopefully been going up over the few weeks but it would find that out in the next interaction it had with them, though that would be after another week or so, plenty of time for them to get used to the fact that Grimm were nearby that weren't necessarily going to eat them.

Neil and Yola had also imparted no small amount of history and current events at the request of Artal, apparently Yola was a part of a group of hunters that had been given a new material designed to improve upon semblances and even harness the very fury of nature itself, it had no name as of yet so the hunters just referred to it as Dust.

This was quite interesting as that meant that humanity could be getting itself into a phenomenal position if this Dust could be used more commonly, if Yola's abilities were in any way tied to Dust then that made the value of such skyrocket in its own opinion.

When asked on the concept of semblances and how they might be obtained Neil offered a disappointing bit of information to Artal, as Grimm held no soul and Aura was a manifestation of the soul she seemed to believe Artal was not going to be able to acquire a semblance.

Artal was familiar with the meaning of the word soul and therefore wondered as to whether it owned one, humanity had been very specific about Grimm not having a soul and Neil did indicate that very old Grimm were quite intelligent, though they tended to be other, larger types, such as Goliaths or Giant Nevermores.

Humanity seemed to have done its research so Artal decided it would look into this later if it had access to some method with which to test on its pack members or, more likely, itself, but that was thinking for the future, it couldn't be bothered for now.

The threat from external Grimm had lightened, likely because Artal had moved from the last place where it had Grimm territory on all sides and it had perhaps been guilty of drawing them in with the Grimm bloodbaths it had caused.

Here the Grimm had been lighter and it had actually killed the Grimm over a far larger and not at all concentrated area, perfect for not drawing in any more Grimm than necessary.

This had made the patrols far less twitchy and nervous, the immediate effect of which became the curiosity about the non-aggressive Grimm that would touch a claw to their head and not attack before leaving.

Artal had briefly touched upon the issue with the village with Yola who informed it that she would really like it if nothing terrible was done to the village but begrudgingly admitted that the military of Vale really didn't care about the village much.

Apparently the Faunas were considered inferior to the humans though that notion had been going away as society had collectively started acknowledging them, the biggest thing that had helped in Yola's opinion was that the military honestly didn't care and recruited equally across the board, in fact, Faunas tended to get preferential positions due to their racial benefits.

This had caused an outcry in the civilian community until the military put a shut down to that via several media campaigns, two of which she was a part of when she was a huntress-in-training, also military veterans were incredibly well respected due to the protection they provided the city-states.

Perhaps this knowledge could be modified to be of use with other Grimm, a form of respect once Artal and its pack had become strong enough, the thought made it wonder what it would be like to have a pack that wasn't just Beowulves in the future.

Artal had also been in communication with the officer in the military that had presumably set this whole situation up, he was a very interesting man and appeared to have some major ambition, apparently he was involved with the setting up of major hunter academy in Vale, named Beacon.

Their conversations were interesting, if slow due to the manner with which the conversations happened, but every now and then Artal would feel like it was not the predator and that this officer was only seeing prey.

The feeling perturbed Artal greatly and was one of the major reasons it had continued its efforts with making the Faunas of the village friendly, all the better to set something up, this military state was far from being ideal, after all if at any point they decided they disliked Artal there was very little to be done.

After a few weeks of effort Artal had actually managed to get a Beowulf that would go along with the patrols, they had quickly nicknamed it 'Little Nightmare' and had stopped trying to kill it every time it so much as moved near them, though Artal did have to change the Grimm tendency to howl when it found an enemy, the patrol was not pleased the first time that had happened.

The replacement to the inborn howl was much more akin to a bark, for good reason, after all Artal had been attempting to imitate a dogs sounds, so far with mediocre success, Beowulves simply didn't have the same access to sounds, they just sounded… off.

Nevertheless it was with great effort Artal had managed to get the pack members to be able to mimic a dogs bark and yowl, far less aggressive than the traditional pack howl and growl. The result had been a significantly less distressed Faunas population, they either didn't react to the barks from in the woods around their village or had a slightly positive expression.

Artal hadn't slacked in its observation of the village either, the pack members assigned to making sure that no small detail made it away from the Alpha, after all any information that it could gather was a step forward to its goal of being able to find out how to manipulate the village.

The patrols had become increasingly effective it sounded like, whereas before the patrols were incredibly slow and focused mainly on keeping themselves alive and being within range to help other patrols should something happen now they ranged farther and traveled quicker.

Grimm did have a tendency to attack the patrols more than they did before but the attacks were far less lethal due to the response time of Artal's own pack to any patrol escort Grimm barks, earning the appreciation of the village members.

Though it had felt that the time was not being used to its greatest effect Artal also realized through his spying that humans were incredibly inefficient, this was mostly realized once it had managed to get a few pack members into the city proper again.

Hiding in much the same way that their leader had before them the pack members had stowed away and hidden themselves all about the city, Artal was quite glad that its brethren were so unintelligent or this would have distressed it that the internal guard was virtually non-existent, they were clearly relying on their external guard.

It had then found that the humans who were not civilians, the guards and warriors, spent their time often on frivolous things such as simply talking, reading things that appeared to be about pointless or non-educational material or any number of a plethora of nearly pointless tasks.

Artal had learned enough to understand the civilian populace was not combat worthy and this could be expected of them but to see so little of the military populace's time being spent on training was confusing.

Though not without opportunity it had concluded, they clearly had different priorities in life and its slowly evolving understanding of human social issues was proving to be worth every moment invested.

It could topple them, it wouldn't even be hard, all the pieces were already in place all the people necessary already ready to go, this country, nay, this world by what he had found was ready for revolution and all it would take was a single word in the right place to tear it all down, it could already feel the Grimm within hungering for the following destruction.

But no, it had its own plan, one that didn't involve the annihilation of every human from the face of Remnant, the humans would survive, they would rebuild and Artal would be right there to guide them down just the right path.

Yes, this would be the right action, the countries were already unhappy and on the verge of collapse, Artal would in fact be saving human lives by doing this, the effects would be ideal, it just needed to talk to that officer again and it could set this whole thing aflame.

Waiting had been the hard part, the plan was already made, it had worked tirelessly on the idea over the last several hours utilizing Art as much as it could, which, now that it understood something of psychology realized sounded insane, though it was reasonably sure at this point that humans didn't have something like Art in their minds, it didn't feel insane after all and Art was quite… present? It wasn't sure how it would explain it someone if they found out.

Regardless of its own possibility towards insanity Artal had managed to get a hold of the officer through Yola and he had agreed to meet with Artal, with the necessary protection detail of course, on the following morning.

Yola had provided plenty of information on the officer and Artal was confident in his ability to convince the officer that following along with this plan would be beneficial to his position within the military.

The crux of this plan relied on this Faunas village and any others Artal could find to follow-up with the revolution in addition to the civilians and disillusioned military members, Yola being a very good example.

This would work out just fine, the ensuing chaos would either let Artal fade into the background or become a major player in the upcoming war, and make no mistake, should this work, war would be coming, inevitable, brutal and utterly uncaring, hopefully Mantle would be ganged up on due to its heavily militarized nature.

Feeling a strange urge to start chuckling in an evil manner it had read about Artal's chest began rumbling in a most distressing manner, it was a very good thing that no humans or Faunas were nearby as they would have likely been worried by the unhealthy sounds coming from the large Grimm, for various reasons.


	20. Chapter 20

**A little more hints at what the presence, Art, is for, but here ye go.**

 **: This chapter should answer your first two questions, the third though... well, can't really tell you that now can I?**

 **H20 Ferrum Dominus: The Grimm have no soul, right? Yet old one's can become quite intelligent, Intelligence =/= Soul. Even so, Artal isn't quite the same as other Grimm. As for other Grimm like Artal, well, how Artal came to be was somewhat unique, perhaps if the situation could be replicated?**

 **The Insane Scientiest: Artal may claim to be a rush in with no plan type of character but... well... Actions speak louder than words.**

Chapter 20

"I appreciate your meeting me here where I have a slight advantage, you'll forgive me being cautious but I'm sure you can understand the dangers I would face should you decide me no longer… necessary."

The man in front of Artal was incredibly annoying, the wordcraft he employed was redundant and took so long to say that which would have taken Yola a single sentence.

He had also made sure that Artal was forced into an open area near the walls, the number of guards looking down from the wall and surrounding it was annoying, escaping wouldn't be too hard, though not without injury, presumably all these guards had been kept silent on some way.

Holding a rather large piece of chalk in its hand, Artal quickly scrawled a return message 'I do not mind, I would like to discuss an idea I've had.' Waiting a moment for the officer to read the message Artal scuffed it out, the black fur turning a grey-white in the area.

'Your civilizations are groaning under their own weight, I would like to release that pressure and channel it' Again waiting a moment before rubbing the fur of its forearm on the board, annoying but much better than writing on dirt or even paper due to the need for a pen or the like, far too small for the Grimm.

Looking wary the officer responded, "I don't know how you know about our… uniquely stressed situation but I'm not sure I like where you're headed." Clearly the officer was slightly more loyal to his city-state than Artal had assumed.

'The intention of my actions would be to cause uprest, specifically to destabilize the other city-states.' Erasing and writing again it continued, 'No doubt Vale would be affected but it would come out ahead, and should someone know this was coming…'

Realization dawning on him the officer gained a slight smirk, "You scratch my back I'll… try to scratch yours, okay, I can get behind that, I think you and I may need to speak somewhere more… private, I suppose some trust is necessary after all."

The next few hours were spent in hushed planning and deliberation, the result of which was a plan Artal wasn't sure it could have even gotten close to thinking of on its own, truly a military officer had much better ideas on how to topple a government than an outsider did.

"Well, pleasure doing business with you, I'll be seeing you soon enough, I believe I have a PR campaign to run with the Faunas, by the way, you got a name now that you're so smart?" The officer considered just as he was about to head out the door of the warehouse they had relocated to.

The large Grimm refrained from smiling as it had been told by Yola it was terrifying and instead settled on a mental image of what it thought its smile looked like, holding up the chalkboard it scratched the chalk across its surface 'Artal, or, should I be brought up, you can call me Art, fitting for this entire endeavor I think'.

Chuckling as he closed the door the Officer looked back "You can call me Tom, Tom Lagune, I hope we can work together on this endeavor, I happen to be in this position for the political power, not the military power, I'll see to it we get a competent military leader into our fold as well at some point."

Feeling the proper vicious feelings associated with the deaths of so many humans Artal closed its eyes for a moment, absorbing the feeling before snapping its eyes open the moment it realized that the feeling was wrong, some part of her screamed out.

A moment later Artal felt her mind being forcibly calmed by Art, no, not her, Artal was not either of the human genders, why did that thought appear when it was distressed at the killing of humans?

Confusion setting in on the mind of Artal, it wandered out back to the woods surrounding Vale's outer limits, back to its pack, all the while it could feel Art rummaging through its head as slowly the distress was drawn away, along with the female… portion?

The slightest speck of annoyance appeared through the powerful grip Art had on Artal's mind, what was happening, hadn't this happened before?

Unnaturally calm, Artal arrived back at its pack, with mechanical efficiency the pack was quickly sorted into their tasks and left behind their blank leader, still contemplating the meaning behind its mental breakdowns.

Deciding it was useless to dwell on something that it had no idea how to resolve Artal focused on micro-managing the pack members as they set themselves up in observation positions around the Faunas village or streamed under the Vale wall through a tunnel that had been dug over the last week.

This portion of the plan had been straightforward, utilize the pack members and Lagune's men to give the impression of a lack of protection, meanwhile Lagune himself would begin a subtle campaign to subvert the populations trust in the monarchy.

Lagune had indicated this wouldn't be very hard given that the population was already getting very frustrated at the overwhelming control that the monarchy and military had forced upon them more and more over the last few decades.

The process would likely take a while but Lagune had indicated his confidence in the success of the venture, further showing his confidence by bragging about his contacts in Mantle, apparently Lagune was just important enough to have contacts in all the right places but not enough to raise flags from the major leaders of the kingdoms.

He assured Artal that he would be able to extend this rebellion to Mantle quite easily which would cause it to extend all over Remnant, the world was already ripe for this situation and all Lagune needed to do was set the events in motion.

He did mention a negative which was associated with this rebellion, he was going to need to take advantage of the Faunas which could result in some resentment that would hopefully not become generational but could result in some serious considerations for the future.

They would have to deal with that if it came up in the future, for now though Artal was pleased, the possibilities of these events would almost assuredly eliminate the monarchy from power, perhaps they would be left figureheads but more importantly it would change the military focus of the kingdoms.

Lying down on the ground Artal looked toward the opening of the cave and listened for a bit, the sounds of nature outside soothing its mind. The Grimm didn't seem to be cared about by the animals of the area, perhaps because the only place that Grimm really bother to attack animals is way out in the wilderness where there are no humans and nothing else to attack.

Getting up and slowly wandering out to the nearest Faunas village patrol Artal focused internally and distracted itself with managing the pack movements again, it never really stopped but if it wanted to it could delve much further into the minds of its pack.

A short time later Artal heard a series of distant yells that it tried to focus on and slowly realized were from its own senses, not those of its pack, shaking its head it brought itself back to its own mind, quickly looking around.

All around it were the patrol members, needless to say they were terrified, and Alpha Beowulf was likely a death sentence to a normal patrol, reaching its arm up to its head it touched the side of its head before bowing low to the ground in a manner it hoped was not utterly terrifying to the Faunas.

Nervously looking at each other the patrol members looked up at the large Grimm, "Are you of the protecting pack?" The one wielding an actually well-crafted paired set of long and short swords compared to the shoddily crafted weaponry of the other members spoke up.

Nodding lightly Artal stood back up, this was fine, they were already somewhat used to the pack members, this wouldn't be a significant jump hopefully, it could follow them along while it continued thinking and micro-managing, a chance to destroy other Grimm wouldn't be unappreciated either.

The patrol started rather simply, no more than a Grimm or two that the patrol quickly swarmed over, herded then crippled before a swift execution from the man with the paired swords, he probably has Aura given his superior physical ability.

Watching the humans… the Faunas fight the Grimm was interesting, dual swords was nowhere near the proficiency that Artal had seen from Hunters before this point but he was still focusing most of the Grimm's ire against himself due to his ability to dodge or even block a few incoming attacks that managed to get through.

Running to the right while a patrol member with a spear held off a Beowulf that was close to getting by his desperate defense due to its fellow Grimm's sacrifice on the pointed spear, bogging the weapon down, the Aura user leapt into the air, turning his entire body before the slamming the blades into the side of the Beowulf, cutting nearly the whole creature in half.

The shorter of the blades did get stuck into the dissolving Grimm's flesh but the longer allowed him to prevent an Ursa from completely crushing him a moment later, yet still knocking the man to the ground.

Realizing now would be a good time to help the patrol Artal sprang from the center of the formation into the face of the Ursa threatening the Aura user, a quick swipe into a slam to the ground left the Ursa lying on its back with its significantly less durable underside open.

Slicing its razor sharp claws across the weakened Ursa's throat left it to drown in its own blood, the inevitable to occur moments later, the rest of the patrol had managed to hold off the other Beowulves in the little attack and once the Aura user stood up and leapt over to another harried Ursa Artal knew the attack was successfully repelled.

The Aura user seemed quite grateful and even went as far as to bow to Artal, a feeling of pride lightly stuck with Artal as it considered what that could mean… perhaps it could take the time to guard the patrols more often, that might not be so bad.

Following the patrol for the rest of its course led Artal to see how the members went about their regular day more than it might normally from the eyes of its pack, the conversation also seemed more meaningful even though Artal knew it wasn't, she did appreciate the camaraderie after all, any person would.

Quietly listening in on the conversations she calmed down, it felt like it had been forever since she had last just listened to someone talk, perhaps if she were to talk to her family again, but no, she had decided she was going to move on from her husband's death, her children had been harder to move on from but…

That wasn't right, she didn't have a husband, she was a Grimm, but no, she was definitely a Faunas, she had married the love of her life about six years ago and had three children, he was dead now though, the Grimm had ended him.

Getting a stronger headache she started holding her oddly strong hands against her head, what was her name though, or her husband's name? A flash of guilt built in her, she couldn't remember her babies names, no, no, why couldn't she remember her little ones?

Looking up at the rest of the patrol the woman considered them as they talked amongst themselves, who were they, she didn't know them, had she been kidnapped and they were holding her to be sold later?

The men were all Faunas however and she considered that Faunas were not known for any slavery or kidnapping, perhaps working for others but that seemed unlikely, they appeared to have been far too friendly.

Being very confused the woman noticed that something was making a knocking type sound or feeling in her mind, was that Art? But who was that, she was… she was… she didn't know what was happening but everything was becoming incredibly grey, what…?

Artal woke again as itself, this time it had understood much more of what had happened, someone had taken over its mind somehow, perhaps a semblance of some sort? It had read about some very strange semblances after all.

It seemed different though, the fact that Art seemed to be providing no information about what happened seemed even more curious, perhaps these events were less serious than it felt they were, otherwise why would Art not provide any information about this?

The confusion about this happening had returned from before but this was leaning towards curiosity at this point rather than frustration, perhaps if it could speak with someone uninvolved with anyone important, perhaps someone in the Faunas village.

The ability to speak would be very nice to acquire eventually, maybe it could work on modifying that somehow, the only time it had felt any changes to its physical structure had been when it killed powerful Grimm or humans, actually, hadn't Yola commented on something like that a short bit ago?

She had mentioned something about how she noticed that Artal had started sitting and standing more like a person, even the gangly powerful limbs of the Alpha had been commented on about becoming thicker in certain areas, a curious thought, she had thought this was due to learning from humans and therefore acting more like them.

It could find out soon enough, perhaps now was the time to go out and do what it did best, fight for territory and take it from powerful and very territorial Grimm, after all, wouldn't land so near a human settlement be highly contested and valuable to the more powerful of Grimm?

The city of Vale was infiltrated already, the plan coming together independent of Artal's physical presence, yes, this could be done fine, knowing more about itself was necessary, after all it had read several human psychology books at this point, something about knowing thyself, well, it could figure it out while killing some more Grimm.


	21. Chapter 21

**Artal gets frustrated rather often, perhaps something to do with being a being of darkness bent on the destruction of an entire species leaves a little pent-up aggression while working with them? Who knows? Oh, wait, nevermind.**

 **Doctorn: I shall honor your request and not spoil this, that being said, the origin of the female consciousness is the Faunas female Artal killed and ate before it arrived at the Faunas village.**

 **Hispanic Chaos: You may be right, you might not be, I'll never tell! Well, eventually maybe. This story won't be stuck in past forever. Just gotta get there first, turns out time takes time to pass, a life lesson indeed. Annoying one though.**

 **Vashne: The presence is the mental protector and guide for Artal, Artal is aware of it but consistently forgets of it for some reason.**

Chapter 21

The pack had been stagnating in size over the last few weeks, maintaining a consistent size of around two hundred, it wasn't sure why its pack was so large but the fact it hadn't increased in size was odd, since it had become an Alpha its pack was relatively consistently increasing in size.

It had leant around sixty or so to Lagune to use as he pleased, their deaths would be uncomfortable but it would deal with it, as it had gained more pack members the loss of each had become significantly less painful to its mind.

Turning back to the forest away from the Faunas Village Artal began trotting whilst calling in every single one of its non-tasked pack members, it wanted to converge and wreak some havoc with the bordering territories, nothing complicated, nothing to trigger… anything, just Grimm bloodshed.

The forest quieted around it as its gait elongated, arms reaching out further and further before the ground itself began to tear up underneath the brutal crashing of its limbs in motion, perhaps its pack could catch up, yes, that would do.

The following hour was much a blur to the Alpha as it ran through the woods south of Vale searching for Alphas, Majors, Giants, anything that would get in it and its pack's way, the lesser Grimm stood not a chance against it and were as much wheat against the scythes of its claws.

It knew the pack was following but it couldn't be bothered, though now that it thought about it, there were an awful lot of Ursa desperately trying to catch up and… ah, there was the prey it wanted, an Ursa Major, just what it wanted.

Changing its stride into a leap to a nearby tree with sufficient girth to survive its upcoming maneuver the Alpha turned to be parallel to the ground, all four limbs acquiring purchase on the tree before springing off back towards the oncoming horde.

The first Ursa was content to let its own girth act as a stop for the slightly larger Grimm, likely used to the large frame it boasted being enough, Artal decided to take that gamble and rammed in, the Ursa quickly found that not only was it not able to resist the oncoming force but the force also promptly rolled over its back, separating its head from the formidable shoulders.

Landing on the other side of the front runner left the Alpha with its back against a wall of very slowly dissolving Grimm flesh, no escape, only forward movement from here.

Feeling very much like a juggernaut Artal flung out its long right arm catching an Ursa by its head before forcing the creature to the ground, the claws finding purchase a moment later in the back of the thick neck, snuffing it out like a candle.

The Ursa seemed more than happy that their prey had paused and had stopped its flight, perhaps due to their natural deficiency in speed compared to a Beowulf, though that applied to most other species of Grimm, Beowulves tended to be swift.

Covering all open sides three Ursa reared up, claws poised to both crush and slash at their target beneath them, the momentary height difference was immediately forced back into the favor of the Alpha as it pounced straight up like it had seen a cat, a small human pet, do before when startled.

The result was a very startled horde of Ursa as the Beowulf clung to the tree it found itself in before kicking off the fragile bark toward the lumbering giant that was the Ursa Major.

Decades of life had taught the Ursa well evidently as it did not seem surprised by the maneuver at all, in fact, the creature reared up to respond to Artal's strike near immediately, the behemoth was far larger than its brethren and evidently faster as well.

The resultant clash went the way of weight, that is to say, Artal swiftly was integrated into the ground via a heavy handed, open clawed swipe, the force of which, left the Alpha disoriented with an unresponsive body.

As Artal looked up at the incredibly large and, upon closer inspection, incredibly dangerous Grimm before it, the realization that it should have waited for its pack came back full force, juggernaut status was rewarded to truly ancient Grimm for a reason, those were the only Grimm that could get away with traveling without a group easily.

Its delirious mind briefly considered how often Deathstalkers traveled alone before remembering that they didn't, it was just that small Deathstalkers tended to be very small and unremarkable.

Finally registering the incoming death blow for what it was the confused Beowulf flung itself to the side before drunkenly rebounding off a tree, it should probably test what was inside its body at some point, human biology had opened a new avenue of thought, as did the concussion it thought it was sporting, if it could even get them, did it even have a brain like humans?

Two Ursa rapidly approached the dangerously swaying Alpha intent on taking advantage of the addled creature, snapping and clawing they tried forcing the opposing Grimm back only to find that the enemy still had plenty of fight left.

Falling forward Artal successfully registered the threat in front and put the razor sharp blades of its claws forward to ward them away, pulling tis head from the ground it found that it had apparently done far more than it thought, its right hand currently dripping blood while halfway stuck in the Ursa's mask.

The other Ursa connected fully though, the strike throwing Artal into a nearby tree, the disorientation getting worse, yet, something was wrong, the world was distorted distracted, certainly, yet, the last blow had gotten rid of the internal ache, something else was happening, Artal wasn't sure if it had a brain like humans but it was sure that at least it's eyes were different.

Perhaps the first strike had thrown the Alpha for a loop, it had happened before, just never so disorientating, recovery was usually near immediate, in fact, it could feel the recovery having completed, it mind was sharp and without the temporary drunken stupor which initially occurred when the blow landed.

The world as it could see though was still very disoriented, nothing was in the right position, everything was fuzzy, it looked like the land was moving, this would have to be investigated, for now though, it needed to secure a foothold for its pack once they arrived from the north, therefore…

Focusing through the haze Artal took off running around the group to the south, intent on having its pack flank them and wreak the most havoc, secondarily the casualties would be lower amongst its pack members, it could take the blows fine, but losing pack members still felt… avoidable.

The Ursa bit, clawed and lunged at the awkward skim their foe performed by their ranks, sometimes within range sometimes not, a series of new claw marks appearing on the hide of Alpha a testament to how close they came to dragging down the fleet-footed creature.

Already it could sense how close its pack was, it needed the attention of the Ursa and none came to mind that were more effective than what it had been given.

Skidding across the ground while turning Artal turned to the sky, rumbled deeply in its chest and howled as loud as it could, the sound reverberating about the area, the targeted audience now hyper-aware of the presence of their target and hopefully only their target.

As the smugness came back due to its pack pouring in from the woods to the north Artal couldn't help but think about the howl it had just made, the sound wasn't at all like the sound it had heard from so many other Alpha Beowulves, it didn't have much an ear for tone but it was deeper and more… like what it imagined a human would sound like if they could roar that loud, pathetic lungs on those creatures.

The thought was cut short as the melee started in earnest, this time it couldn't just dance around the group, it had to hold their attention to lessen the casualties among its pack, so wading in it went, avoiding the lumbering creatures like the world around it wasn't hazy and shifting constantly.

The cries of pain from the other side of the group drove Artal rather swiftly into bloodlust, the large Grimm all around acting as little more than receptacles for the razor-bladed aggression that was directed their way for a mere moment before their life was snuffed out.

After trading blows rather unevenly with around sixteen Ursa the Major finally managed to find its way to the front, its arrival punctuated by a massive crash where the Alpha had been a mere moment earlier.

The great beast charged forward in a manner very reminiscent of a Boarbatusk, intent on flattening the very large thorn in its side.

As Artal dodged to the side it noticed something odd, when it avoided the charge it had been so intent on getting out of the way it had not pulled off a counter strike, yet despite this the Major tumbled to the ground as if it had been struck instead of recovering from its charge.

Standing back up on its four legs the Major looked around until its eyes came upon Artal, farther away than the rest of the Ursa due to how far its dodge had moved it, yet as its eyes looked at Artal a realization came across the Alpha, the Ursa couldn't see its foe.

With this realization came a chilling thought, the disorientation was probably occurring with the Major right now, a third party or a natural phenomenon like they were fighting next to some noxious gas vent.

A quick check with the pack's eyes confirmed there were no gas vents or anything of the like, there was someone here at the fight, maybe not nearby but most likely at least within sight of the battle, Semblances were weird but there did tend to be certain consistencies they followed.

Realizing quickly that its own eyes would be virtually useless for this task it stepped back a bit further and delved into the sights and senses of its currently in combat pack.

The eyes of its pack were focused but that was fine, acquiring the information from the lightest farting of glances was enough, after all it was only taking a tiny bit of information, no processing necessary.

Pushing the information to Art eventually yielded results, one of the pack had glanced and seen a human shape silhouetted against the back drop of the canopy, the figure hadn't moved and was a ways away from the fight but that was enough.

Setting a few pack members to the side Artal created a dedicated stalking unit, focusing on keeping them hidden from the person lest they consider fleeing.

Turning back to the frustrated Ursa Major, Artal decided that with it disoriented as well now was the time for a killing blow, after all, Grimm hit hard but didn't tend to be resilient to physical damage until they got enough bone armor.

Running low to the ground Artal moved between the legs of the larger creature, cutting clean off the front right leg and causing the swift giant to topple to the ground, it's already lost coordination only serving to worsen the effects.

The collapsing creature realized dimly that its target was right below it and decided a crushing was in order, not that it could choose not to, but at least it realized that it was also the correct decision to kill the impudent enemy.

Continuing its forward momentum the Alpha attempted to slip out from under the larger beast, or at least turn its body around to contest it when it was inevitably dropped on.

Swift thought the Beowulf may be it was not fast enough to get out from under its foe and the larger of the two now had a pinned Alpha beneath it, unfortunately for the Ursa the Beowulf it pinned was halfway out, laying on its back and clawing its face and neck.

Biting down on the belligerent Beowulf the Ursa drove its teeth deep into the shoulder and promptly shook its head, intent on ripping the offending limb off of its owner's body.

Feeling the tissue ripping Artal became desperate and slipped it's still functional left arm around the back of the neck as quick as it could to find a sufficient weak point to end the larger creature's existence.

Tissue tearing, the claws found their purchase, a proper killing blow to anything with a spine, or whatever similar construct a Grimm had, the claws slid up the back of the neck, that sweet spot where neck and head met, instantly ending any further intelligent thought or action.

Relieved at the success Artal began to squirm out from under the larger Grimm, after a few squirms though it noticed something was wrong, it couldn't feel it's right arm, looking down confirmed its thoughts, the Ursa had completed it's final task, from the shoulder down was a blood dripping mess.

Slightly panicking Artal saw its arm lying to the side, thrown a short distance by the violent shaking, yet missing a large chunk of the shoulder area, likely still inside the slowly decaying Grimm.

Prying open the jaw of the deceased Grimm was useless with only one arm, the creature likely had more jaw strength than Artal could deal with anyway but it needed that shoulder back before it presumably dissolved away like the Grimm that enclosed it.

The pack slowly started trickling in, the battle clearly having gone well, one pack member dragged the large missing limb over to their leader, looking at it briefly Artal decided something was better than nothing and jammed the slowly dissolving arm into the gaping wound.

Not being sure on the specifics of Grimm healing and how it interacted with missing limbs Artal ordered the grim business of ripping open the maw of the Ursa Major to recover the lost shoulder.

A few short minutes later and Artal had what was presumably it's shoulder, completely impossible to determine though due to the amount of dissolution already having occurred and the amount of blood it was covered in.

Trying to focus on the reattachment of it's limbs Artal almost didn't notice the hunger creeping up on it, nearby was the body of a prime example of a Grimm, one which would be no doubt delicious to eat.

Perhaps it wouldn't be terrible to give its body some nutrients… healing took a significant amount of those as it understood from those books…

Slowly standing awkwardly while holding its still not attached right arm with its left Artal stepped back next to the bulk of the larger creature, the desire to consume becoming stronger as it warred against it, Art insidiously inciting the rapidly flaring feeling.

Artal didn't often consider Art to be against it, in fact, every time Artal considered Art it realized it had forgotten about Art again, how could it forget about something that had been there since the beginning?

Yet Artal had no such defense against this manner of attack, nor did it feel as if it needed any, wasn't this something it would have done anyway if it hadn't been so worried about its arm, natural, this was.

Jaw slightly hanging a last thought crossed the primal beasts mind before it succumbed, who was the one that interfered with its fight?

The thought washed away immediately as Artal dissolved away into the mindless beast of its origins, the great mound of power that was once the Ursa Major now only power for the beast that consumed it.


	22. Chapter 22

**This chapter didn't come out quite right a few times so I decided to make it a little longer to get what I needed to across, I should probably bump this up to M at some point here, pretty sure bloody combat qualifies, ah, well, RWBY has plenty of sudden and violent ends so I don't feel too guilty.**

 **Doctorn: Didn't mean to sound demeaning, just reiterating a relevant point en lieu of actually spoiling something for you! This chapter may do a bit more for your theorycrafting. Maybe.**

Chapter 22

The world slowly came back into focus, a black night sky, stars as far as the impeccable eyesight of the observer could see, something had changed while it slept, something was also missing.

Getting up from its position on the ground Artal looked around, the forest was eerily quiet, as any forest should be with the number of Grimm that were within its view.

All around the pack was spread, resting, but still spaced in such a manner that any attacker would have step over waves and waves of Beowulves to approach their formerly unconscious leader, they radiated from the center in circles, a perfect ground defense/detection method.

Artal felt that sense of pride in its pack again, the black miasma from the remains of their previous battle still creating the disturbing fog that would likely have a human screaming in terror about the horrors of the Grimm.

Many Grimm had died here recently, yet Artal realized that the humans might not even know that was what the fog indicated, after all, Grimm killed by Aura users rapidly dissolved into nothing, no trace left, perhaps a trait developed to further help the propaganda that everything was fine among the humans.

Aura was so strange Artal considered as it looked around the area, perhaps it should be moving now, its bloodthirst had been sated and it hadn't felt so good in… weeks… months, perhaps?

Yet as the large Grimm rose from its relaxed position it fell to the side, its right arm had fallen in a hole or something… no, there was no right arm, looking down in disbelief Artal realized its body had fooled it with phantom signals, there was nothing there, a gaping hole in its shoulder area a reminder of the near lethal attack.

Had the Ursa bit slightly more to the side it would have gotten into the Alpha's neck, a far less survivable attack location for anything that was reliant on blood, oxygen, thinking or eating.

Yet now it not only was missing its right arm but missing most of its shoulder as well, no small amount of movement relied on shoulder musculature, well, actually it wasn't much but it was important nonetheless, head movements specifically.

Tentatively moving its head to see how the biology books stacked up to what it was now affected by Artal was pleasantly surprised, it still had full range of motion of not only its neck but also the right chest area, perhaps Grimm worked differently it considered yet again.

Looking around its immediate surroundings it failed to see the remains of its limb, nor of any solid body, it was night now but how long it had been out was hard to tell with the moon being new, no light from the celestial body to illuminate meaning on the world beneath.

As it shifted around it realized that its body didn't move like before though, glancing at its body and moving around it felt its center of balance was different, not to mention its arms… arm, was stockier than before, overall Artal simply felt… heavier.

The pack slowly woke around their leader and already Artal noted changes in them, they were ever so slightly larger, were significantly more heavily bone-plated and all of them had acquired streamlined short spikes along their backs much like Ursa had, yet more placed with the expectation of swift movement.

The spikes that it found on the pack were shortly found on its own back, they were more like thick bone-quills than the spikes of an Ursa it realized though.

As Artal mused on these new occurrences it felt Art stirring in its mind, unusual in the fact that it did not tend to notice Art doing anything unless it was intensive or affected Artal in some way.

Curious at what Art could be doing Artal delved into its mind as best as it could manage, admittedly, very poorly and found bits of thoughts roiling off the mental powerhouse that it considered Art to be.

Clinging to these thoughts Artal experienced them by doing the only thing it could think of for metaphorically acquiring information in a mindscape, it ate them, it had worked before after all, though not on Art, Artal still wasn't sure what Art was.

Consuming the thoughts led to a curious idea, what if it were to consume Art? Art had always been the mental powerhouse, not to mention it did so many… other things, things that Artal either had no sway over or had no idea about.

The thought stuck but Artal considered it a stupid one after it ate another thought from Art, the presence was a mental juggernaut as much as Artal was a physical one, they had their areas of expertise, co-habitation wasn't so bad after all.

Eating another thought sprang the realization that it shouldn't do anything to Art whatsoever, in fact, it was suddenly afraid of eating Art, as if eating the presence in its mind would kill them both.

The idea was so sudden and unexpected that Artal wasn't sure what to make of it, fear was not a response it was used to, in fact, it was one that it avoided at all costs, was it in the thought it ate in the first place?

Forcing itself out of its meditation Artal wondered if Art wanted it could fully manipulate Artal and it would be forever stuck in subservience to a being that refused to reveal itself in any true manner, it would not need to think about these things for now and come up with a solution later.

Bringing up the minds of the stalker group dedicated to tailing the unknown observer from their fight Artal noticed that the individual had moved only to get into a better position but otherwise had not left.

Calmly and subtly Artal ordered pack members near the edge of the area to slip away and position themselves relatively near their target, the process took several minutes but eventually it had moved all the pack members not in direct line of sight into position.

Stretching and making a show of slowly and calmly getting up Artal ordered the rest of the pack to mimic its actions before leisurely padding northward, back where they came, angling slightly so that they were on a diagonal by the target.

As they got closer and closer the stalker group noted the target getting antsy before finally getting up and readying to run off, unacceptable of course, immediately the collapse occurred, all pack members made an all-out sprint to the goal which had the target simply abandon its pack and leap to another tree before dropping and running.

Unfortunately for the target that it jumping to another tree meant nothing, the forward group had completely surrounded her already and when she landed it was to the sound of the growling Beowulf it had landed on.

The startled face of the target came into view and I ordered the pack member she had landed on to go limp that she might lose any force she would have intended to leap off it with, one cannot jump off water so easily after all, physics books were quite interesting as well after all.

Tumbling to the ground after the failed jumped no less than fifteen Beowulves leapt atop the target, my intention of non-lethality having been shared to them they simply crushed the individual beneath them.

Arriving at the Grimm pile after longer than it liked due to its missing limb Artal arranged the rest of the pack around the hidden target before ordering the Grimm to extricate themselves that their prisoner might be seen.

Moving off the target revealed a scuffed up small girl, no, upon further inspection, sexual characteristics were present and her face had none of the indicators of… baby fat? It was much easier when human children simply meant small but then it had to find out that the adults could be short as well. Illogical.

Either way the woman jumped to her feet, clearly angered, yet also somewhat resigned, perhaps she had already given up, yet even as it considered this it noticed that the pack was acting differently.

Quickly looking through the eyes of its pack it saw a very different scenario, their leader on the ground with the same woman standing atop it and holding the weapon to the throat as if to dare them to get closer.

The woman also looked very different, whereas in Artal's eyes the woman was short, had black hair and looked almost meek, in the eyes of its pack the woman was dangerous looking, a cocksure look adorning her face set below a head of two toned brown and pink hair as well as a pair of striking pink eyes.

Her weapon was a thin blade that appeared to be part of a cane and she held a large patterned circular shield almost as tall as she was, specifically due to her diminutive height.

Had she done something? Perhaps this was like the dizziness Artal experienced during the fight the other day, looking through the many eyes of the pack all resulted in the exact same sight, the woman had done something and Artal was the victim of it.

From the vision of the pack Artal wiggled one of its claws out of sight of the woman to see if actions still translated from its own presumably incorrect reality to the reality present from the vision of the rest of the pack.

The claw did move, perhaps its movements only transferred due to its understanding of the incorrect reality before it, it wasn't working on much, yet it still had senses in the form of its pack.

The woman was glaring down the pack, clearly trying to think of her way out of the situation, anytime one of the Grimm would move toward her she would move the point of the blade closer to the neck of their leader and yell things along the lines of "Stay away or I will kill your Alpha!"

Gradually moving its body without alerting a human who was literally standing on it turned out to be very difficult for Artal, its body was powerful, it was used to putting in as much effort it could when physically exerting itself.

The tiny precise movements were much akin to the act of learning to write in the human language, as soon as the thought crossed its mind it realized how very similar this could be, light and simple, move the arm slowly out of her vision.

The woman was clearly agitated as she to consider an out, she did seem to accept that she might be there for a while before that out presented itself, perhaps she was hoping another pack of Grimm would come and attack, a perfect distraction.

Artal placed its arm in striking position then made a Beowulf in the opposite direction make an action towards the woman to draw her ire and concentration away from any other possible sources, such as a large clawed hand.

Just as the woman waved the blade closer to its neck in response to the pack member acquiring her ire Artal struck, the blow wasn't perfect, Artal wasn't used to using its own body through the senses of others even if it was used to using the sense of its pack at this point.

As far as Artal could tell it had just arbitrarily attack open air right in front of it, pointless and strange, yet in the vision of the pack a very different occurrence happened.

The blow caught the woman off guard, with a startled squeal she was sent flying off the large Grimm and into the crowd of smaller ones, each of which were very intent on showing her their claws and teeth via introducing them to human flesh.

Before any could destroy the unknown individual Artal ordered them to hold her that she would be unable to escape but not harm her otherwise, it did still have its alliance with the humans to consider and from what it had read Semblances were almost entirely unique to hunters, an important piece of the government.

A wandering thought came up, it had changed, at least physically, perhaps it could work with a voice to some degree, or at least get some things across without having to write them down every time.

Growling and exhaling air as it had read and theorized, Artal began making noises, after a minute or so of this it became incredibly evident to the Alpha that this was not to be, at least not right now, the best it could manage was a sound that was mildly unthreatening, no more.

The woman however, appeared terrified, clearly its attempts at conversation had an adverse effect on the attempted relations, perhaps it wouldn't be worth it, and yet, maybe it was, not in the way it originally thought but perhaps in a different way.

Looking at the woman it decided to test its hypothesis, one it had been ruminating on for a while now, confirmed further after it had killed and consumed the Ursa Major, it was changing, maybe it wasn't a normal Beowulf, maybe it was something like an Alpha of those shapeshifter Grimm it had seen a few times down south.

Either way, this woman was here at the mercy of it and it's pack, a few questions were in order it supposed, a few moments later on a bare patch of dirt and it had its pen and paper equivalent.

A pack member acquired a stick from nearby and walked over to the incredibly uneasy woman, nudging her before dropping the stick in front of her then backing off, clearly confused the woman reached down to grab the stick.

The rest of the pack saw this interaction and all at once were pleased, it was obvious by the extra effort they went to panting and widening their mouths into smiles, Artal had spent quite a bit of time trying to get the pack to behave in ways that humans would like after all.

Looking at the stick in her hand the woman put her hand back as if to throw it, Artal saw this and was confused, going quiet, this caused the rest of the pack to quiet down and stare at the stick with great attention, what was she doing?

Crystal had been having a wonderful day up to this point, she had been out doing what she did best, bounty hunting, not the boring style against pathetic humans and Faunas but the challenging style, against large or elder Grimm.

Now Crystal was no amateur to this field, she knew when she was outmatched and when she could take something out on her own, she had been tracking an Ursa Major that had been causing some trouble for a nearby village, the huntress of the village had been badly injured and they needed someone to pick up the slack.

That person had found that fighting against a pack of Ursa for 24 hours straight was exhausting and had requested his own back up before getting injured, the loop had continued until someone had the brains to realize maybe a leader Grimm was keeping these Ursa so focused and sent a message to her.

It was greatly comedic to Crystal to watch a group of five hunters try to fend off a constant barrage of Grimm, they came in large enough numbers with each wave they couldn't really just off-handedly deal with them, yet the waves just kept coming.

Four injured Hunters and one rapidly tiring Hunter was comedic to her, maybe if these idiots were part of the military proper they could have called in some real reinforcements, instead they had break away for who knows what stupid reason it was this time, she'd heard it all before.

Shaking her head as she looked at the group from a tree quite a ways away she reminded herself she wasn't here to kill them, they were dissenters, yes, but she wasn't part of the clean-up crew anymore, leave that to the young and impressionable.

Turning to look into the woods at her back she jumped down and ran where the waves presumably originated, completely sure in her ability to move about unnoticed if she so chose, after all, she knew what she was doing, those posers may have been Hunters but she, well, she was a step above.

The hordes of Ursa unintentionally led her straight to her target, shifting about as they were she simply hid amongst them, making sure to layer illusions on to any that might see her, luckily Ursa were quite large and she used this to her advantage to prevent many from seeing her at once.

Leaping beside another Ursa she almost cursed, wishing she was as good with the family semblance as her mother had been, that woman could simply layer the illusions over an area, her absolute territory of control, truly a terrifying woman.

The king had liked her mother greatly, perhaps a little too greatly she suspected once she was older, after all, two toned hair wasn't a trait of her family, yet the king had an uncle with curiously similar two toned hair, she had her suspicions who her father was, not that her assassin mother would ever confirm anything.

But she didn't need to worry about that a slightly hysterical part of her said, after all, she would never need to deal with the woman again, the woman was always so paranoid about being killed by the other kingdoms assassins she likely didn't even worry about the little assassin she had raised and tormented.

Slapping her hands to her face Crystal forced a grin on her face again, no point thinking about serious things, after all the Grimm were starting to get curious about the stench of human depression, confidence was what she needed and so that was what she had, those anti-Grimm rehabilitation courses were great for that after all.

Grinning from ear to ear and without a care in the world again she leapt from cover to Grimm based cover before she finally arrived in a position to see the Ursa Major a ways off, this one was larger and clearly had been around for a while, probably why it was controlling a group of Ursa so well.

Pulling out her thin Dust reinforced sword from her shield-sheath she briefly considered how she might jump the large durable creature before the Ursa snapped its head up and turned to the north and let out an earsplitting roar.

Covering her ears Crystal slowly opened her scrunched up eyes before realizing that the Ursa Major was gone and every Ursa in the area was heading north at a running pace, what on Remnant could cause such a stampede unless… Vale!

Crystal did consider herself a jaded person, hard and cruel but there were a few points where she was kind, she had always told herself she would never be like her mother should she ever be in the same place, married and with a child they both adored, the love of their life.

And those two people she considered even before her own life were north, in Vale, the city she didn't care for but if it were to fall then… Narrowing her eyes Crystal leapt after the horde of Ursa, intent on finding where they were going, the horde alone would be no existential threat to Vale but if it combined with a few others… people needed to know.

Tracking the horde wasn't difficult, it was far from a subtle movement after all, it took only a few hours but the pack eventually arrived somewhere, or more specifically, they stopped, she couldn't see what caused them to stop but she did hear the sound of conflict from ahead, though they shouldn't have been anywhere near Vale.

Hiding in the trees she noticed that something was knocking the physically imposing Ursa to the side and causing arcs of blood to fill the air in crescents, the beauty not lost on someone who spent most of her life killing large amounts of… everything.

Leaping out from amongst the large Grimm came an Alpha Beowulf, landing just outside the group of Ursa, one that looked a bit different, it was more… It was different, it stood a little like a human, it had more armor plating than the average and its mask had a teardrop shaped hole below one eye.

The oddest thing about the creature was the ears it had, they were too long, a normal Beowulf typically had pointed wolf-like ears this one though, looked longer, not to mention they were more rounded overall and almost had a pink to the inside.

It was odd, the entire creature looked like a weird cross between a person and a heavily bone-plated Beowulf though the ears made it look a little more like a Faunas than a person, the chest area was hard to see like any Grimm but she could swear it looked a little… no, that was stupid, Grimm had no gender, a well-known fact.

Deciding to disorient the Alpha to make sure it was slightly less likely to notice her Crystal looked around for any other anomalies and found her original target, the Ursa Major, She had never seen Grimm infighting before but there was a first time for everything, she could wait.

A few minutes later and she was witness to a unique fight between the odd Alpha and the rather large Ursa Major, the fight ended after a rather brutal disarm from the Ursa that she had expected would have taken out the Alpha but she… it, wasn't out and it turned the fight around quite spectacularly.

Another odd tidbit that she had heard about but never personally witnessed was the miasma of decaying Grimm, she had never witnessed it because it only ever occurred when a battle happened with no Aura users present, or at least none that had killed any large number of them, she wondered if there was a connection there but had no way of knowing.

The Alpha and it's pack proceeded to rip apart the hoard of Ursa, an odd situation for sure, Ursa were considered higher up the Grimm chain to Beowulves and yet these ones were better armored, faster and more intelligent, they did everything right and overwhelmed their superior opponent.

After the battle they all rested in the miasma, maybe it made them stronger, either way she was determined to stay and observe, after all this might be her only chance to see more of these once-in-a-lifetime occurrences.

A few hours later and she was getting a little too excited, the Alpha had changed while it slept, she was larger by a bit, her… its arm was thicker and its back had some bone spikes that were arrayed somewhat like a cross between an Ursa and a porcupine and the ears!

The ears had gotten even longer, they were now lying across the back of its head before falling off the edges, the entire creature was getting eerily close to looking like a Grimm Faunas, albeit a twelve foot tall one if it stood up, it was still far more Grimm than Faunas but if it could get close enough for her to see any resemblance at all that didn't bode well.

As she considered that getting word to Vale might be a good idea if a Grimm was attempting to mirror a sentient species to possibly infiltrate she heard something below her and started to get worried, the worry compounding when the Alpha and her pack started to slowly and leisurely get up and head northward, distressingly close to where she was.

Now was the time to leave she thought and made to do so quietly before she saw the previously hidden glowing eyes beneath her, they knew she was there!

Leaping to another tree she rapidly considered her options, she needed out and she needed out an hour ago, it had known she was there for who knows how long, leaping from the tree she found the ground blocked by a very non-rigid Grimm.

She had leapt off Grimm many times, they were very tense creatures after all but this one turned to jelly beneath her, turning her jump into a stumble at best, the Alpha was guiding them, a perfect chance.

She quickly layered her illusions over the Alpha leaving her standing there before jumping properly this time onto the large head of the now only three-legged creature, though considering its appearance it might be more accurate to call it one armed at this point.

Seeing the packs sudden reluctance to attack she realized that her plan must have worked, she quickly yelled out to the pack to stay away or she would harm their leader, her blade out and poised, even her umbrella folded shield was in position to block any sudden attack from the pack.

After a few minutes of warding off the pack she began to worry, they weren't doing much and she was confident in her ability to keep the Alpha locked away for hours but how long would this take, the stalemate would last until she either threw away or killed her bargaining chip, the result of which would be death either way, she was confident but even she didn't think she could get through more than a hundred of these uniquely talented Beowulves without serious injury at least.

As she considered her option the Alpha beneath her shifted slightly and Crystal immediately looked at it, unfortunately too slowly as the completely illusion locked Grimm beneath her slammed her off of it and into the crowd of Beowulves which all leapt up to finish her.

How could this have happened, she had her illusions in place, all she had to do was wait for an opportunity yet somehow the effectively comatose Grimm beneath her had attacked her, she would die like this? How worthless she felt, she would be abandoning her daughter just like her mother had abandoned her, it may not have been the same but the effect was, her daughter would be without a good mother.

As she closed her eyes and thought about her family she noticed that the Grimm that swarmed her weren't biting or slashing her with their claws, sure she was getting cut but it was more like if she ran her arm along a blade rather than something trying to kill her.

The Alpha slowly shifted the smaller Grimm covering her until she could see, they were still holding her down however, what came next terrified her, it was trying to frighten her further before the end, normally she would have locked down her emotions but this was the end, she didn't want to go out as an unthinking machine.

The growling came to a halt a moment later as the Alpha seemed to consider something before pointing it's not actually very pointed anymore snout at another Beowulf that dropped a stick in front of her from its mouth then proceeded to pant in front of her as if expecting something,

Thinking for a moment she realized what they wanted, they… they wanted to play fetch? What on Remnant? Was it because the creature was becoming more human-like that it considered this over eating her?

Grabbing the stick she picked it up, the entire pack all around her following it with their eyes, panting like dogs all the while, well, if this was how she lived then she only had one choice, fetch it was, before she hurtled the stick with a small portion of her strength.

Almost immediately the whole pack stopped all motion and stood frozen in place, what… what had she done wrong? They weren't chasing it… They weren't chasing it!

Slowly the pack looked from where the stick had landed and back to her, a small part of her noted that the eyes of the pack seemed to be made up of mostly orange with a few traditional red mixed in, before her panic fully settled in, she had messed up somehow!

The Alpha attempted what she assumed to be a human expression of anger, possible only due to the slight similarities and her previous observations she was able to read it, immediately wishing she wasn't able to she leapt from her position, layering as many illusions as she could on as many Grimm as possible.

Her leap was cut short as the Alpha, the one she had made sure to make most disoriented swatted her out of the air, somehow still fully functioning and able to fight.

Looking around for her blade and shield she noticed that they were a currently being sat on by one of the Beowulves, cutting out that avenue of fighting, sprinting and jumping like a cat being sprayed with water she desperately tried to escape, her dignity a long lost thought.

Then she noticed the ground and sky had reversed positions and the world glowed pink for a moment as her Aura faded away, her last defense against the harsh world gone, now it was over truly, "The sky is so dark" a small voice spoke out from her mouth.

The sky turned black and white as the Alpha stood over her with its huge maw opening, a brief thought occurred to her and she whispered out at the last moment, "My lovely family…" The tears couldn't come.

Artal was annoyed, it had intended on eating the wayward huntress but just as it was about to the words "My lovely family" came from her lips and suddenly the flash of her bunny eared little babies came to mind, no, that wasn't right, Artal had no children, and even if it considered the pack its babies they still weren't bunny eared.

Suddenly in an incredibly dark mood Artal had the pack members hamstring the woman and carry her after them, she wouldn't be escaping, she was strong after all and she wasn't tied to the individuals she was working with.

Actually, the woman could have been, there was a good chance she was, yet that didn't change the fact she was getting eaten… unless someone came to claim her in the next few days, yes, that would do, Artal would keep her prisoner until a few days had passed and no one had claimed her then eat her.

Why on Remnant was this so difficult, the powerfully built oddly eared creature made its way back to its den not realizing that it occasionally stood on two legs, possibly due to having only one arm but also because it was natural to it now.

As it looked at the woman it felt the hunger and delicious flavor from the presence but also the disgusting flavor from itself, Artal couldn't make up its mind, yes, it was hungry, Art was hungry, this would serve to test further its thoughts.

Roaring out into the woods Artal made its frustrations known, it had come out into the forest to relieve the anger and annoyance of being surrounded by creatures that Art constantly indicated were delicious.

Yet here it was, anger mostly spent only to find another source of annoyance, the day had yet to even begin yet it already promised to be an infuriating one.

 **Crystal is such a lore connection character for me, between getting the royalty connected and Neo setup for existing, (No, Neo isn't Crystal's daughter.) If you have any ideas about what purpose Crystal will serve do take a guess, though it will be a short one, hopefully you've been paying attention to Artal's little changes.**

 **Also do remember that Grimm are uniformly pitch black, this is important for reasons.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Hi All,**

 **Looking for a new job is always fun, still, lightens up stress at work knowing that I will be moving on.**

 **Been slowly building this one up one sentence at a time, once I get through the Great War I oughta be able to establish the timeline easier instead of getting all stressed out about the virtually non-existent RWBY past timeline, honestly I should just stop worrying about it and remain vague about the time, tying it to events rather than years.**

 **By the way, If anyone has any suggestions about where you think the ancestors of the many cast members might potentially be I would love you to throw some ideas my way, a few have slipped in and they fit quite well so far, Go Lagune! Err, wait, don't go? Who knows, Timey-Whimey stuff.**

 **Artyom-Dreizehn: Happy you like, Artal will and has been evolving over the course of the story, rather rapidly.**

Chapter 23

The world swam into focus for crystal, she had been dreaming such an odd dream, one in which brilliant white maws tried to eat her as she hid in the comforting darkness.

Around her was further darkness, as well as things that were fluffy and warm, it was odd, picking herself up the fluffy things around her whined and she stiffened as she recognized the sounds, Grimm.

Jumping to her feet she stumbled and fell over, not used to standing up, her body rebelled against her and she fell backwards back into the pack of solid black, no-armored Beowulves, they had to be young Grimm, the only white on them was their tiny masks.

She quietly attempted to get to her feet before she noticed something was wrong, her feet didn't move as they should have, looking down she felt that around the back of her heel was a large slash, effectively hamstringing her, she couldn't run.

Was she to be the food for the pack? She didn't know Grimm needed to eat, she thought they did it for whatever reason caused them to hate humanity with such a passion, therefore why would they preserve her life to be killed at a later time.

This terrified her for a moment until she noticed that none of Grimm around her were actually attacking her, in fact they seemed to be moving around her as they entered and presumably left the area, this would be much easier to deal with if she could see.

Lifting herself up slightly Crystal began moving before further realizing something else was wrong, her body felt wrong, it was like it was too… Large, incorrect, the Beowulves around her may be young but they should not have been this small.

The darkness was gradually becoming lighter, she felt as though she could see ever so slightly but what she was seeing was not helping her remain calm, it was a light that was causing this but the voices on the other side were not panicked like she was.

"I agree Ms. Yola but I am afraid that no matter the choices in the coming days there will be casualties, perhaps with our mutual ally we might at least stem the damage from the Grimm side of things." An older male voice came from the direction of the light, he sounded well to do, though distressingly out of place.

"This is all a moot point, you saw what he did to that huntress, he just asked us if she was important then when we said we didn't know her just ate her, just like that, it worries me, no, it does a lot more than just worry me but you better get to ethics pretty damn quick." The younger female voice sounded worried which was much more applicable for the location those they were all in.

Trying to move proved difficult as she tried to move her suddenly disproportionate body in the manner that felt the most normal to her she crawled towards the approaching light and the voices that were likely bringing it with them.

The light slowly turned the corner and the two people she came face to face with were tiny, this startled her as her family had always been rather short, she was far from an exception to this with a total height of five feet one inch, yet somehow these people were far shorter than even her.

Something began to ring in the back of her head, something that she felt like she should have been paying attention to but also something that she was ignoring avidly, touching on the thought caused her to put her hand to her head and it was then she saw it, that which put all the pieces she had already mostly put together and forced her to acknowledge it.

The hand that was next to her head was inhuman, giant, clawed and very much not her own, the reality of the situation could be denied by her no longer, she had been turned into a monster of some sort, she had never heard of the Grimm being able to do anything like it but the Grimm still had many mysteries to them.

Looking about at the Grimm around her in a new light she reared her newfound tall body to its full height, it could be worse the debatably sane part of her reconciled, she was tall now, that had always been something she had a problem with, people could say all day that being short wasn't bad but no one she knew was quite as short as she was.

A little bit of fear as well once she managed to convince people she was still human… ish, her position wouldn't suffer aside from a lack of stealth she supposed, being big wasn't all upsides she considered.

The two finally entered the chamber where she rested and looked up at her, curiously she noticed no surprise in their features, they knew she had been there for some reason, why?

"Artal, I know that we've given you some significant leeway given your… nature but I'd really appreciate it if you didn't surprise us like ya did yesterday" The woman spoke while looking right at her while the man next to her nodded lightly but with a hint of fear in his eyes.

"I must agree with my compatriot in this matter, we would consider it a great… we would like it if you refrained from… harming those whom we… share a species with. Not discounting Faunas of course! Please keep the deaths you cause limited, that huntress may have been doing an important task and we will never know now." The older gentleman adjusted his glasses as he regained some composure in front of Crystal.

What on Remnant were they talking about? Grimm did look similar to her she supposed but was this filled with intelligent Grimm that they could mistake her for another?

Lifting the lantern over her head the woman squinted her eyes a bit, "Did you change again? You look much more… Umm, nevermind, the prof's here though so, well… get to it then, I'll be in the… I'll b outside." The woman made a swift exit almost forgetting to leave the lantern with the older gentleman before she left.

Looking at the remaining man she decided she would find no answers unless she asked, slowly opening her mouth she attempted to talk but what came out sounded like someone who was recovering from swallowing lit fire dust, a process she had once forced a… reluctant individual to go through with, he couldn't speak but he could write down what she needed later, though it turns out writing with your non-dominant hand was quite difficult. His problem.

The man seemed suddenly very eager, his eyes lighting up slightly, "Was that… an attempt at speech? Perhaps those changes of yours will be of greater value than I originally assumed, my apologies in that regard, I have much more interest in the strange and… well, Humanity is not strange in the ways I care for."

Turning and running from the cave with the energy that should be reserved for a much younger individual "Ah, I mustn't forget, a pair of famous Hunters are coming to town in a few days and one of them is well renowned for her ability to find and hunt down Grimm, well, her younger brother is the one more known for the taking down part but I digress, at any rate, please attempt to keep your head down, testing the Arc family has never worked out for anyone in the past, I doubt it will change any time soon, brutal family, that one, yet the king seems… Well, I don't know but something has him spooked, only the best for our liege."

Scratching her voice for all it was worth Crystal desperately tried to get out something, anything, something had just… probed into her mind for a moment and she was not okay with how it simply came in, mentally licked her all over then left within a moment, there was something lurking in the depths of… this body? Her mind? Something was here and she was not okay with it.

"I… Krih… Kree… Krees… Kruh…" The rest of her attempt devolved into coughing and sounds that could no longer pass as an attempt at language.

Her distress only increased when she felt the presence return, this time it seemed content to simply stay there, sitting right at the metaphorical edge of her vision, not going away.

Crystal was not a perfect person, she never thought she was a good person either, her job made her very aware of this fact, yet she also knew that the only good guys were the ones that she could never interact with.

She was the blade in the dark that made those shining heroes like those Arcs look so squeaky clean possible, she had no doubt that there were truly good people out there, she had heard the stories from the old storytellers, the ones about the silver eyes and of the old heroes, like the Schnee's before the current patriarch of the family turned to business.

Her expectations for how her life would end had always been incredibly fatalistic, she had no delusions about how people like her disappeared yet when she had her daughter she realized that she couldn't just disappear and had taken jobs that were much more associated with Grimm, at least if she died on those jobs it wouldn't cause collateral for her family.

Yet now she was in this impossible to reconcile situation, there was no way she could see that lead to a definitive return to her family, after all, what would her family think if a huge monster walked in the front door?

No, she would be stuck here, she had already died after all hadn't she? There was no way she could have ignored what that woman had said earlier, she didn't know why she was in this situation but she couldn't bring herself to do anything but despair.

Feeling the despair close in on her she suddenly realized that the presence had been sitting right on the edge of the enclosing despair, fear spiked but she knew it was already too late, she had let it get close and now it could do whatever it wanted to her, hopefully she would at least maintain her sanity, though what consolation was that?

The world gradually faded but as she felt herself being pulled into the darkness of her mind she noticed something pass her, something that was bright in the darkness and for some reason she felt comfort.

Artal woke faster than it was used to, perhaps due to the fact that it had apparently slept standing up, the reason eluded the Grimm as it was quite sure it had gone to sleep in the middle of the cave surrounded by it's pack.

The confusion it felt was further compounded when it noticed the professor in front of it rambling on about famous Hunters and their historical effect, information that Artal would have been appreciative of learning.

Deciding not to consider on this anymore it walked forward beckoning for the professor to follow, they couldn't very well read any books in the darkness, the lantern was bright but human eyes were not effective in the dark it had found.

"I must say Artal, this new form is quite… well, it feels like it is rapidly approaching the uncanny valley, ah, you likely do not know of what I speak of, well, the uncanny valley is…" The professor broke off into a speech on the efforts of some rather crazy and overfunded scientists to create a human replacement for combat with the Grimm.

Realizing quickly the professor had started on a tangent that was only barely traceable back to its source Artal considered about the effects that Dust technology development would have on any plans it might have, actually, he said that its form had changed… perhaps…

"Kruh… Gruu… Hrrr…" Perhaps not, the sounds were indeed much closer to the highly intricate voices that the humans sported but it was still nowhere near functional, in fact, its throat felt particularly inflamed, perhaps… had it acquired a voice box?

Testing would have to occur later, for now it needed to work with the professor, in fact, it needed to practice its own writing, apparently the method of writing had been changing rapidly and the professor suggested that it try the new 'Pen'.

This device was much more compact and did not require the annoyance of keeping a well of ink on one's person, yet the drawback was particularly annoying for Artal, specifically because it had gotten used to using its claws as quills for writing.

"Artal, I must confess, I have not actually used a quill in quite a few years, this was primarily for your own benefit, yet with your hands significantly more… human… it might be possible for you to become used to the much more convenient and widely accepted pen." The man gestured towards Artal's hands and sure enough they were much different from what it had remembered them to look like.

The claws that had always been the focus of the hand were set back slightly, they no longer protruded from the fingers, instead they originated from the knuckles, it felt wrong, yet it now had fingers it supposed, even if it its claws felt much less useful.

Curious about the full functionality of these new fingers it reached out and grabbed the pen and immediately understood, there was something instinctual about using them, though when it did a vision of the huntress it had eaten the other day flashed across its eyes and a sharp headache ensued.

It hardly mattered, pain was easily ignored, yet the images flashing in its mind were more distressing, Artal knew it forgot things but it did still remember the Faunas woman it had eaten before, it had said it wouldn't eat more people yet something always happened and it… forgot… each time.

It was infuriating to Artal, it knew something was causing it to forget but it couldn't think of what it was, there was nothing that should have been effecting its mind, the presence would have alerted it to it, unless it was…

The world around Artal sharpened into focus on the lecture the professor was giving, it felt like it was forgetting something very important but it couldn't remember, it was infuriating, it knew something was causing it but it couldn't think of what it was… a tremendous searing pain caused it to cradle its head in its suddenly fingered hands.

"Is everything alright there? I can't help but notice you look like you've been in pain for the last hour or so, I'm terribly sorry for getting lost in my lecture but the history of Hunters is very interesting to me." The professor looked worriedly at the large creature before him.

A light feeling of confusion crossed Artal's mind, since when had it been an hour? The professor had arrived only a few minutes ago, a half hour at most, had this internal problem been happening longer than it thought?

Using the pen it had been holding for apparently an hour straight Artal questioned the professor on some psychology topics, perhaps it might find out a solution to this, it knew something was wrong yet it couldn't seem to focus on the source of it.

"Ah, well, I must confess to not be the most learned in this particular area, I could speak a little on this topic but I am by no means an expert, perhaps we could speak a bit about it and I could bring some books associated with this?" The professor seemed more than happy to indulge his terrifying students thirst for knowledge.

Another vision of pink and brown flitted across its sight, another spike of a headache making itself known, mayhaps it should have considered further before eating that huntress, this always seemed to happen after it…

It had caught something, some inkling that it felt it had a good mental grasp on, tugging the thought further into its vision it realized it was a man, a man with two claws, daggers, it now realized, while holding onto it he realized that he had never figured out the name of the man he had killed back then.

As soon as he remembered that something else shifted and he noticed the presence sitting at the edge of his mind, like always, yet why had he forgotten about it again? The presence had always been there yet he had forgotten about it time and time again.

This worry grew lightly and something new came in, distrust, he had never distrusted the presence in the past, yet as soon as he had thought about the man of daggers he felt his mind free, though he should have realized that, after all, he had always been incredibly sharp, being the oldest and resident responsible parent had mentally hardened him.

Actually, he should really check up on his siblings, how long had it been anyway? There was no way that mom would have managed to hold the house together for very long… that wasn't right he wasn't alive… he was killed by… himself…?

As the confusion set in Artal felt its mind return to its own control, that had been… odd, it had occurred before but it had never remembered them before, like with the Faunas woman and with… Crystal only a short moment ago, what was the presence doing?

Perhaps it was doing something to keep these personalities in check? It would need to read more on multiple personality disorder, actually, was this an indication that perhaps the presence wasn't to be distrusted?

No, for now it would keep at least one personality in the back of its mind to brush off the presence's influence at regular intervals, it still didn't know why it had been 'born' with its mental sibling but that didn't mean it trusted it like its pack after all.

The presence had always seemed like it performed tasks that Artal couldn't manage, yet this was a step too far, this mental confusion, it realized, had been going on for weeks now, technically longer but only recently had it become crippling, if these personalities were so hard to deal with then maybe the presence shouldn't make Artal continue eating them regardless of its intentions.

Artal got up and readjusted before nodding to the patient professor to continue, knowledge couldn't wait.

In the back of Artal's mind Art sifted through the souls it harbored, suspicion from its host was not unexpected, it would have considered Artal mentally damaged had it not developed that particular piece of independence.

Art knew that its host was special but from the bare bones of what it had known upon its existence starting it was starting to piece together that its role wasn't quite like the others, why, it didn't know but perhaps humanity was being given a chance.

One of the souls bled into Art for a moment and a shark like grin formed in the inky blackness, or perhaps humanity was totally screwed... Pulling the soul out and putting it back in its place Art considered that, yes, it had been given a purpose, and while it was incredibly vague and mostly pointed to keep its host alive and functioning there was the slightest bit of the age old hatred.

The hatred that kept humans afraid of the dark and held them in place, preventing them from expanding, yet, the development of Dust made them stronger, less fearful, a new step might be necessary.

It would let Artal keep the souls close, keep it fully lucid, the pain that would come could have been avoided but a few mental pains from the death of a soul to make its host more comfortable in its own sanity was fine.

Only a moment of lapsed concentration and the most recently acquired soul began flowing back to the front of the mind, grabbed quickly by Art it would likely only show a vision of something associated with the huntress for a moment with a little headache, Truly Art's job was never done.


	24. Chapter 24

**Getting back in the swing of things, well, probably only for a bit, oh well.**

 **Gonna be able to start adding some tags that aren't just the ever awful OC, fun times.**

 **Please Enjoy!**

Chapter 24

Things had not been going great for Tom Lagune, or actually, they had been going great but he was becoming less and less sure that this direction was the one he wanted to push the world to, ambitious he may be, but even he was starting to realize what the leaders of the kingdoms had already realized, the world was tipping and already people were dying, though it was thankfully mostly assassinations for now and he didn't think anyone had caught onto him yet.

Mistral was maneuvering themselves perfectly, avoiding conflicting while egging on Mantle to start things off with a bang, or at least they thought they were, in truth Lagune had already made more than a few anonymous information drops with certain individuals.

The amusing part was that he had somehow managed to outmaneuver Mistral, the kings of the game, and he had done so without immediately causing the kingdoms to drop into war, just stew more.

No, these were all successes, the immediate reason he was that the king had somehow caught on to one of his contacts stirring things up, how that inactive useless man managed to figure anything out was incredibly surprising, nevertheless he had apparently requested some assistance from the Arc family.

This turn of events was incredibly odd to Lagune, of all the people to call, the Arcs were the last he would have expected, they were a genuinely politically clean family, well, they had washed their hands of politics with the blood of more than a few individuals, so as clean as they could be he supposed.

No, something else was going on and he couldn't figure it out, especially now that he had silenced his contact, a grim affair but necessary, the king wanted the Arcs but it didn't have anything to do with the upcoming war… or at least it wasn't completely about that.

"These events leave me incredibly worried Lagune, even if this is inevitable I do not like being the catalyst, even if your… anti-Grimm agent is really that good, could you at least show me a sample of their skill?" Turning to regard the other in the room Lagune internally sighed, Councilman Nikos was on board but Mistral was nothing if not untrustworthy.

"I can speak to him and see if he would be able to… give a suitable performance, however, I will request you keep what you see a… well, this individual is very unique with a very unique semblance, please refrain from judging by appearance." The Councilman was going to be in for a surprise when he showed off his ace in the hole, however, preparations needed to be made.

The professor had been giving Artal strange looks for the last week though he had refrained from commenting on the reasons why, Yola was considerably less subtle with her glances and frequently mumbling to herself after said glances.

The constant unspoken tension was starting to annoy Artal and it only was magnified when it… fused? Artal still wasn't sure what it was doing with the personalities it held in its mind especially given its uncertainty as to what they even were.

The two humans had begun to catch on that there was more than just one personality inside the creature they worked with, they would even start talking differently and asking questions whenever one of them was forced to the surface, they never got anything meaningful as Artal made sure to stay in control the whole time.

This came to a head one day when Artal exited its cave just as the two arrived and stretched into the air, it muscles feeling somewhat stiff from resting in its cave, for some reason it had felt as though sleep was slightly more necessary of late.

Looking up at the large Grimm before him the professor put his hand to his mouth and coughed awkwardly, "Miss Yola, perhaps it may be prudent to see about… clothing for our large companion here, should he… she, decide to… change again I believe that it would no longer be… debatably acceptable."

Nodding to the older man Yola turned around heading back the way she came from, "Yeah, I'll see about what I can find XXXXL back in town, or maybe see if officer holier-than-thou can come up with anything."

Looking at the officer Artal lightly tilted its head inferring confusion, the professor continued lightly coughing into his clenched fist awkwardly, "Ah, well, you may recall we commented on your most recent changes after… well, about a week ago, these changes have made you slightly more in line with what human anatomy… That is, umm, hmm, you know what? I'm sure that Yola can speak on these matters better than I might be able to."

Nodding in response to his statement Artal sat upon the ground next to the Grimm carved stone table and set the books it kept in the cave on the ground, the professor sighed in relief before sitting down on the opposite side of the table, "Well, as we were speaking on yesterday the kingdoms have historically…"

A light pattering of steps followed with shifting stone announced the arrival of another to the area, "Ah, professor, thank you for your continued work with our acquaintance here, however might I have a moment of his…"

The voice that spoke up was the officer Artal had interacted with a few times now, Lagune, it recalled, curiously though, as Lagune spoke, his words trailed off, his jaw hanging and leaving his mouth open for just a moment.

"Professor, I would actually like to speak with you right now, might we have a few words, right now…" Turning about face the officer began striding off, only occasionally adjusting his balance as some of the crumbled shale shifted beneath his feet.

Curiosity quite thoroughly peaked at this point Artal sent a few of the beowulves from nearby to eavesdrop, intent on at least figuring out partially why all the humans around it were acting so oddly over the last week. It should probably check in on the Faunas village personally at some point as well.

"Professor, I believe that the Grimm I just witnessed was Artal, am I incorrect in this thought?" the cold voice of Lagune immediately came through to Artal, though it meant little to Artal, what was the purpose of confirming Artal's existence?

"I… Umm, well, Artal, that is, the Grimm has… It recently was involved in… an event… that may have, slightly, changed, just slightly, mind you… It is particularly warm around here is it not?" The professor seemed to be speaking in… Tautologies? Yes, that was it, why was he speaking nonsense?

"I have no patience for surprises, why is… she… feminine in any manner, I am unaware of Grimm having genders and am curious as to why a Grimm would have any use for breasts as they are unable to reproduce, therefore I will ask you again, what has occurred?" Lagune's words gradually heated up until he was almost shouting.

Cowering from the verbal assault launched against him the professor straightened and readjusted his glasses nervously, "Yes, the Grimm recently attacked and killed a Huntress and ate her a short time later, not Yola thankfully, and after she… changed, though she was already changing before this event, Yola informed me that Artal came across a Faunas woman being harassed by Vale guards and ate her which caused some physical and likely mental changes."

Rubbing his eyebrows the officer lightly sighed, "And why, did you not mention this to me? No, nevermind, you said she has been changing over the last few weeks? I did not get a good look at her when we first struck the bargain but the first time we met in close quarters are you telling me she had already begun changing by then?"

Nodding, the professor breathed out quietly in relief, "Yes sir, I have requested Yola to find some clothing in case the Grimm changes again, as you may have noticed there is nothing indecent about her as of right now but should her pelt change from a mono black then it make human interaction more awkward, especially given its interaction with the nearby Faunas village."

"The Faunas? I think that I am going to need you to keep a journal from this point onward that you can update me with, now, this actually may work to my advantage, I have a… contact that would like to see our little project in action and Artal's humanification will work out just fine for this." The officer looked pensive for a moment before a light smile stretched his lips and he turned to walk back towards where he left Artal waiting.

Opening its eyes Artal looked back at the small books beneath its arms considering what it had learned, was it truly becoming more human-like? If so did this mean it could infiltrate them more effectively? It would have to ponder on this later though, the officer approached.

"Artal? I was wondering if I might be able to show off your capabilities to an interested party, this would cement them as part of our plan, would you be able to do so?" The small smile did not budge from his face as the large Grimm stood up and loomed over its smaller partner-in-crime.

Coughing slightly Artal arranged what it was pretty sure was its voice box in the correct manner before wheezing out "Yes…" immediately wiping the smile off the officer's face as it was instead covered in surprise.

"You can… you are able to speak? Since when has this been the case?" Lagune immediately began inquiring before Artal shook its head side to side in a negative manner conveying quite effectively its inability.

"I… see… Well, I will have him and his retinue come down here, Perhaps you might acquire something to make your own pack able to be differentiated with common Grimm, I will have to leave that to Yola should she arrive back soon enough and the professor, good day." Nodding lightly Lagune swiveled and began walking off, though not before again nearly losing his balance when a slab of shale shifted under him.

Walking to Artal's side the professor looked up at the larger creature, "He has been handling a great deal of pressure, please humor him if you can, I will see about working on something to distinguish your pack, perhaps you can figure something out in addition to whatever I come up with?"

With that the professor began his return, Artal absentmindedly nodded towards a few pack members to have them guard the professor, the Grimm's mind considering how it might distinguish its pack other than by a weird gesture or sound.

Stretching itself out amongst its pack it observed what they were doing and noticed that all but one were on uninteresting patrols, that one was currently engaged in combat with a group of non-pack Beowulves alongside a Faunas village patrol.

A light growl that sounded suspiciously like a "Hmm" rumbled from the Alpha, perhaps the Faunas village could be used in this manner, they had been working with Artal's pack for a while now, not to mention it was capable of writing quite efficiently now, especially given its fingered hands now.

Village guard was boring, that was just how it was, nevertheless the something reptilian Faunas was at least trying to make something of it, after all it wasn't every day that one of the not evil Grimm came from the forest and decided to assist his guard by curling up in a ball a few feet away.

It was really weird now that he thought about it, they looked a lot less dangerous when they displayed… well, anything other than hatred, hunger, anything murdery actually, helped that they were able to show that they weren't dangerous by the sounds they made.

What he was not prepared for, however, was a Grimmified giant… was that the outline of breasts? Coming from the forest a few minutes later, he hadn't heard of… whatever that was, before, almost immediately it made a light bark sound and gestured towards him.

"Are you part of the friendly Grimm?" Trying his best not to sound scared out of his wits he hailed the creature that had acknowledged him, his fear slowly lightening and leaving instead confusion, the creature in front of him was walking on all fours but looked suspiciously like it could walk on two not to mention looking like if someone took a Faunas woman, made her ten feet tall, turned her into a pitch black silhouette then added a bunch of Grimm bits everywhere. Weird.

It nodded at his inquiry and walked up to him, his appreciation of its height being further cemented in, before it pointed towards the village and made a 'come hither' gesture, perhaps wanting to talk to someone, he didn't know who but it was probably either those kids or the elders.

Turning to the small gate into the village he opened it and yelled inside, "Someone grab one of the elders I got one of the friendly Grimm…" Turning back to the large creature outside of the gate he considered for a moment before turning back, "Leaders, I think, friendly like the others seems."

His request was answered nearly immediately an elder that happened to be fixing a house nearby, the gate swung open revealing a man who looked like old age was treating him well, very little grey in his hair and his wrinkles were mostly smile creases.

Looking up at the large Grimm that had summoned him the elder coughed into the back of his wrist before his calm seemed to return to him, "Welcome to our village, I take it that you are with the Alpha that protected our village?"

The elder paused, perhaps the Grimm in front of him looking just humanlike to make him consider it possible of response, Artal, however, showed a small journal it had kept in its hand while traveling over to the village, a pen held between its pages.

Opening the pages it began writing before passing the journal to the elder, the large claws coming distressingly close to the worried Faunas, the elder grabbed the journal and read what was written in it.

"Yes, I come with a request, the Alpha has need of some other way of distinguishing its pack other than non-aggressive sounds and gestures so that it might help others. Have you something that might be able to do so?" Figuring that telling the elder that it was the same Alpha as before was too much trouble and it shouldn't matter it refrained from bothering.

"Well, I suppose we could… give them bandanas or something of the like, it wouldn't take that long either, it would also help out our patrols so that they can know when your pack is helping or it's an enemy Beowulf, we'll do it, give me a short time to discuss with the other elders." Nodding at the Alpha the elder turned and walked back into the town.

Sitting down on the ground cross-legged as it had seen the professor do on occasion Artal retreated into it's mind and began bringing every pack member it had, that was not actively tasked to something, ordering them to wait just out of sight and rest by curling up in case a patrol came across them, non-aggressiveness had served it well up to now with the villagers and it would continue this trend.

About a half-hour later the gate opened and five somewhat older men and women stepped out, each one clearly startled by the Grimm in front of them, "Have you a name? We would like to have something to address you as."

Writing its name on the paper the Grimm handed it to the guard who seemed to have gotten more used to being in proximity to it over the last half-hour, "Uh, it says its name is Artal, isn't that the name of that Alpha that started this whole thing?"

Internally Artal realized its error, they did know its name, well, it shouldn't matter too much, let them guess what that meant, it didn't care what they called it after all, last time it checked it hadn't found anything quite similar to it, uniqueness had its value.

The elders seemed to look at Artal curiously for a moment before a woman spoke up, "We believe we could assist you in acquiring bandanas to identify your group, however we would like to request your continued protection of our patrols, since your group started assisting we have had no casualties and the patrols seem quite happy with the assistance."

Nodding its head Artal then gestured to the woods and a few pack members strode out casually, slow and without aggression before lying down around the gate guard, their intentions of being available to the village hopefully coming across.

"We can get started immediately, we'll see how many we can get to you by tomorrow and go from there." The woman lightly bowed towards the large Grimm before Artal grabbed the journal back from the guard and began writing again.

Tossing the journal back the guard read, "I would like a few done today as well, five or so would be fine, after that the timeline is your own and no longer pressing… Yes I come, Oh, sorry, that's the previous message, it ends there." He then handed it back to Artal.

"We can do so, please come back here later and we will have as many as we can manage." The elders then walked back into the gate, some yelling able to be heard from the other side once the doors closed.

Satisfied it had completed and requests from Lagune and the Faunas village Artal headed back to the cave, bringing the idle pack with it, it contemplated sending them out to take more territory before shaking its head, it needed to have them at full numbers and fully ready for when Lagune came back with his client.

Resting in the cave Artal drew the personality of Crystal to the forefront again, intent on resting without the presence doing anything unexpected while it rested, leaving orders with the border pack members to wake it up when someone approached.

Eyes sliding closed it thought on its plan as it slipped away, if everything went well it have its pack spread all over the world, it could become stronger and stronger and then, then it could find The Intruder finally.


End file.
